ページの画像
PDF
ePub

SELECT POEMS.

ON

VARIOUS SUBJECTS;

SELECTED TO ENFORCE THE

PRACTICE OF VIRTUE.

AND

Wich a view to comprife in one Volume the

BEAUTIES

O F

ENGLISH POETRY.

BY THOMAS TOMKINS.

THE SECOND EDITION.

The pleafing Art of Poetry's defign'd

To raife the thought, and moralize the mind;
The chafte delights of virtue to inspire,

And warm the bofom with feraphic fire;
Sublime the paffions, lend devotion wings, .
And celebrate the First great Caufe of things.

LONDON:
Printed for

J. WALLIS, AT YORICK'S HEAD, LUDGATE-STREET.

M, DCC, LXXXII.

ΤΟ ΤΗ Ε

PUBLIC.

POETRY may be faid to claim our first attention, as it was originally intended to exprefs our gratitude to the Deity, and teach mankind the most important precepts of religion and virtue; by which the human foul is not only exalted and refined, but the heart is fortified against all the various affaults of human calamities, and by which we are taught to confider happiness as entirely depending on the reflections of our own minds. We fhall be fufficiently convinced of thefe truths, if we only confider the particular end and defign. of the feveral species of poetry.

The EPIC POEM was intended to convey inftructions disguised under the allegory of an

« 前へ次へ »