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When, with juft Malice, be defign'd to show
How far unbounded Vice, at last, would go;
In Profe we read the execrable Tale,

And fee the Face of Sin without a Veil.
But when his Soul, by fome foft theme inspir'd
The Aid of tuneful Poetry requir'd;
His Numbers with peculiar Sweetness ran,
And, in his eafy Verfe, we fee the Man :
Learn'd, without Pride; of Tafte corre&, yet free,
Alike from Nicenefs, and from Pedantry ;
Careless of Wealth, yet liking decent Show :
In fine, by Birth a Wit, by Trade a Beau.
Freely be cenfur'd a licentious Age:
And bim I copy, though with chafter Page;
Expofe the Evils in which Brutes delight,
And fhew bow eafy 'tis to be polite;

Exbort our erring Youth—to mend in Time,
And Leatures give—for Mem'ry's Sake, in Rhyme;
Teaching this ART—to pass thro' Life at Ease,
Pleas'd in ourselves, while all around we please.

THE

THE

PLAN of an ESSAY

O N

DELICACY.

WITH A

SPECIMEN of the WORK.

In TWO DIALOGUES.

By NATHANAEL LANCASTER, LL.D.

Aggrediar, non tam perficiundi fpe, quam experiundi vo

luntate.

CICERO

First Printed in the Year 1748.

VOL. I.

M

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TO

The Right Honourable

The EARL of

CHOLMONDELEY.

My LORD,

HE Men of LETTERS feem to have well confulted their own Reputation and Intereft, when they threw off the illiberal Reserve, which had long kept them at a Distance from the converfible Part of Mankind, and fecluded them from the high Advantages of that excellent School, which we call the Polite World. For it is a free and open Commerce with People of Distinction and cultivated Abilities which gives the true Embellishment to Sense, and renders the Attainments of the Scholar, conducive to the Purposes of Elegance and Delight.

That Freedom Debate, and Diversity of Topics, which adorn the Converfations of Men of Rank and polite Literature, will give his Mind a generous Enlargement, and open to him delightful Scenes of Knowledge, at once awakening the Imagination and informing the Understanding. From their Difquifitions he will learn what is beautiful in the Productions of Art; from their Demeanor,

M 2

what

4

what is comely in Manners.

For where the Ad

vantages of Birth and Station are united with liberal Accomplishments, there is the Seat of Elegance, and the Standard of Politenefs.

Though the Quickness of familiar Discourse admit not of an Attention to that Accuracy, which is required in Writing; yet there is in thefe exalted Intercourses, a certain fuperior Spirit and genuine Eloquence; which is, perhaps, a better Help to the Improvement of Style, and a more enlivening Model for Imitation, than the cold Efforts of the Closet were ever able to produce. Those happy Turns, and emphatical sprightly Phrases, which are struck out by the Heat of animated Converfation, and that genteel graceful Dignity of Expreffion, which is peculiar to those who move in the higher Spheres of Life, will catch the Ear of him who is familiarly accustomed to them, and steal, in fome Degree, into his own Diction. For as our Senfes naturally retain the Print of the Images, which are commonly prefented to them; fo our Language almoft unavoidably takes a Tin&ture from thofe, with whom we ufually converse. These Effects are fo conftant, that we seldom fail to difcover by a Man's Writings, with what kind of Society he has generally mixed.

I must add; that in thefe high Scenes of Observation, there are frequently fuch lucky Hints thrown out, as prove a fruitful Source of Thoughts and Imagination, which would never have occurred to him in the ftudious Hour, or in the Company of meaner Spirits.

These,

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