Joseph Downsend THE UNION: OR SELECT SCOTS and ENGLISH POEM S. Dubiam facientia carmina palmam. Juv. EDINBURGH: Printed for ARCHIBALD MONRO & DAVID MURRAY. M.DCC.LIII. Blackwell 3-7-38 35769 PREFAC E. As the mind of man is ever fond of variety, no thing feems better calculated to entertain, than a judicious collection of the smaller (tho' not on that account lefs-labour'd) productions of eminent poets: an entertainment not unlike that which we receive from furveying a finish'd landschape, or well-difpos'd piece of fhell-work: where each particular object, tho' fingly beautiful, and fufficiently ftriking by itself, receives an additional charm, thus (as Milton expreffes it) SWEETLY INTERCHANG'D. The first miscellaneous collection of poems, that ever appear'd in Great-Britain with any reputation, is that publish'd by Mr Dryden: which was afterwards continued by Tonfon. There are many pieces of the highest merit in this collection by Dryden, Denham, Creech, Drayton, Garth, Marvell, and many others; yet the compilers, it is evident, were ⚫ not always fufficiently fcrupulous and cautious in their choice, as feveral pieces are admitted, among the reft, which would otherwife utterly have perished, and which had no other recommendation than that they ferved to fwell the volume. Since this, many mifcellanies have been published both in Scotland and England to enumerate which would be no lefs tedious than useless. It will be fufficient to remark, that thro' |