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IMMEDIATELY after the Commencement be embarked for England, carrying with him recommendations to the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, as a fit perfon to fupply the new Miffion, then propofed to be opened for Gloucester county, in New-Jersey. Upon the Society's nomination, he was admitted into holy orders by the prefent Lord Bishop of London, Dr. TERRICK, who expressed great fatisfaction in his examination, and particularly in the perusal of an elegant English piece which he composed in a few minutes, upon a Theological question, which he was defired to give his fentiments upon.

HE returned from England, and landed at Philadelphia, December 26th, 1765; having had for his fellow-paflenger (among others) the worthy and ingenious Lady, to whom many of his pieces are addreffed. Upon his arrival, he entered immediately upon the business of his Miffion; and alas! but just lived long enough to fhew, by the goodness of his temper, the purity of his morals, the cheerfulness and affability of his converfation, the fublimity and foundness of his doctrines, and the warmth of his Pulpit Compofitions, how well he was qualified for the facred office, to which he had now wholly devoted himself. He died October 29th, 1767, lamented by all that knew him; and by none more earnestly and affectionately,

than

than by his own Congregations, whom he had not yet Served two years!

SOON after his death, the papers which compofe the following Volume were committed to the care of myfelf, and the Lady already mentioned, agreeable to Some of his own last directions; and so facred is the trust configned by deceafed friend, that I fcarce know how to excufe my long delay in offering them to the world; efpecially after the great encouragement given to the publication, by the numerous and respectable lift of Subfcribers, prefixed to the work. The true excufe will be the best, and I am perfuaded, the most acceptable; namely, my want of leifure to felett and review the different papers, and the interruption which the work met with, by my being obliged to take a voyage to South-Carolina, during the last winter.

WHAT high and rapturous Ideas our Author had formed of true POETIC GENIUS, may be in fome measure conceived from the following Preface, which feems to have been intended for his Pieces, and was undoubtedly written by him, in the fhort interval between his laft dangerous illness, and that fatal relapfe, which put an end to his life-This Preface I shall give literally as he left it; for here the leaft variation would be criminal.

PREFACE.

" POETRY, fays be, has been accounted the

moft peculiar of all the liberal arts; and it is

the only One, in the circle of literature, which a man of common capacity cannot, by meer dint of conftant application, become mafter of. The most exalted profe writers that ever graced the learned world, have rendered themfelves liable to ridicule in their addreffes to the MUSES."

"THE great Cicero, not lefs famous for the elegance of bis ftyle, than for his univerfal knowledge, was a remarkable inftance of the truth of this obfervation. And the wonder ceafes, if what a celebrated Critic* fays, be true, to wit-That to conflitute a POET, is required "an elevation of foul, that depends not only on art and study, but must alfo BE THE GIFT OF HEAVEN." I say, if this be the cafe, the riddle is immediately expounded, and we are at no lofs to affign a reason, why fome, (comparatively speaking) illiterate men, have been the fublimeft poets of the age they lived in.”

*RAPIN.

IT

" IT is not strange, therefore, that those whom nature has thus diftinguished, fhould be looked on as a kind of prodigies in the world. For, according to Horace, it is not a trifling power the man is endued with

-meum qui pectus inaniter angit,

Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet,

Ut MAGUS

LIB. II. EPIST. I.

"THERE is a pleafing Je ne fcay quoi in the productions of poetic genius, which is easier felt than defcribed. It is the voice of nature in the POET, operating like a charm on the foul of the reader. It is the marvellous conception, the noble wildness, the lofty fentiment, the fire and enthusiasm of spirit, the living imagery, the exquifite choice of words, the variety, the sweetness, the majesty of numbers, and the irrefiftable magic of expreffiont.

THE profe writer, may indeed warm his Reader with a ferene and steady fire; he may keep up his attention with the energetic, the flowing period. But the POET's it is, to wrap him in a flame- to

This fentence, fo truly rich and poetic in itself, is a fine infance of the Author's juft conception and feeling of a true Poetic genius and enthusiasm.

diffolve

diffolve him, as it were, in his own rapturous blaze! The POET's it is, to hurry him out of himself, with the fame velocity, as though he were really mounted on a winged Pegasus-It is his to lift him up to Heaven, or plunge him into the gloom of Tartarus It is bis, to unveil to him the fecrets of the deep, or to exhibit to his mind, all the novelty of this varied world-to carry him back into the darkness of antiquity, or waft him forwards into the vast sea of futurity-and finally, to inspire him with the patriot glow, or fire his foul with the heavenly ideas of MORAL BEAUTY, and all the varied paffions of Love, Fear, Terror, Compaffion, &c. &c."

"SUCH is the genuine Poet, when improved by the precepts of Art; and the works of fuch have been the continual delight of mankind, as they afford the fublimeft intellectual enjoyment. With fuch, to tread the flowery fields of imagination, and gather the rich fruits of knowledge, is HAPPINESS indeed!”

"BUT it is rare, that fuch Natural Geniuses are feen to arrive at this envied height. Some black obftacle ftill clogs their wings, and retards their progrefs Frequently thofe to whom Nature has been thus bountiful, have not leifure to attend to the cultiva

tion