have been tempted by the liberal offers of my bookseller, is an excuse which can hope for but little indulgence from the critic; yet I own that, without this seasonable inducement, these poems very possibly would never have been submitted to the world. The glare of publication is too strong for such imperfect productions: they should be shown but to the eye of friendship, in that dim light of privacy, which is as favourable to poetical as to female beauty, and serves as a veil for faults, while it enhances every charm which it displays. Besides, this is not a period for the idle occupations of poetry, and times like the present require talents more active and more useful. Few have now the leisure to read such trifles, and I sincerely regret that I have had the leisure to write them. ΤΟ LORD VISCOUNT STRANGFORD. ABOARD THE PHAETON FRIGATE, OFF THE AZORES, BY MOONLIGHT. SWEET Moon! if like Crotona's sage, * By any spell my hand could dare To make thy disk its ample page, And write my thoughts, my wishes there; And all my heart and soul would send To many a dear-loved, distant friend! * Pythagoras; who was supposed to have a power of writing upon the moon by the means of a magic mirror.-See BAYLE, art. Pythag. |