be Much Oftner in the Wrong than We: Let them be fo Juft as to Sufpend their Affurance 'till they have Confider'd as We have done; at least let them, How Wife, Learned, and Poetically Qualify'd foever, be withal fo Civil as not to Set Their Extempore Fancy upon the Same Foot with Our Joint, Deliberate Judgment, and perhaps with That of Many Others of Much Greater Weight.

Some will Say we have Explain'd what Needed no Explanation; Others that we have Not done So much as we Ought. Our Anfwer to the First Sort is, Every Tittle which They Think Too much is Precisely what was Never Intended for Them, Unlefs to put them in Mind of what perhaps they would not have Thought of. However if Such parts of our Labour are Ufelefs to Them, There are Enow who will be Glad of Those. They who Complain we have not done Enough Ought to be Thankful for the Pains we have been At for Their Sakes, and we Intreat them, Confidering What a Laborious Work, both of Thinking, Writing, &c. we have gone through, to Excufe Us that we Condefcended not to Write Too Low.

If, though not fo Perfectly as Others Might, We have made This Admirable Sallie of Human Nature of more Univerfal Ufe than it has Yet been, we fhall to Such who are Affifted by it, in Proportion as That Affiftance happens

happens to be, do for Them what Milton Himself did Not. What he gave to Others of a Superiour Class we have Handed down to Them. With refpect to Them Paradife Loft is So far Our Gift. We found This Book, as a Picture of the Greatest Master, Obfcur'd for want of a Proper Light; We hold it Up to Them in Such a One; but we Abhor to do what is Too Often done by the Best Pictures, We dare not Scour, much Lefs Retouch it. I must give my Reader an apropos Story which I had from a Friend of Mine, well Acquainted with These Matters, and who, as I remember, told it of his Own Knowledge. a Gentleman vifited an Old Painter who Understood Pencils, Cloath, and Colours Extreamly well, but was Absolutely Void of a Pittorefque Genius; This Creature was found very Bufy with a Fine Picture of VanDyke; there were Two Hands in the Picture, One of which was in Shadow. What are you doing Here! fays the Gentleman; Doing, fays That Beaft; See here your Great Van-Dyke, as you call him; Was there ever Such a Blunderer! he has made a Man with a pair of Hands, a White One and a Black One; Outrageous Nonfenfe! then with great Triumph fhow'd Both his Own Hands as being Both White; and to work he went to Mend Van-Dyke. and did So as He thought, but the Picture would have been Utterly Ruin'd had not that 1 2 Wretch's

Wretch's Colours been got off while they were Yet Wet.

I have from my Infancy Lov'd and Practic'd Painting and Poetry; One I Poffefs'd as a Wife, the Other I Kept Privately, and fhall Continue to do So whilft I Live. I have Already Endeavour'd to be Serviceable to the Lovers of Painting in what has been Publish'd by My Self First, and Afterward in Conjunction with My Son; Particularly having on All Occafions Strove to give an Idea of the Dignity and Usefulness of the Art as Understood and Practic'd in its Beft Times and Where it was Moft Efteem'd. an Idea Always Neceffary to be Inculcated, but Never More So than at Present, when the Miferable Low Tafte of our Ancestors Seems to be Return

ing upon us every day More and More. Now I have Try'd to be Useful in the Other Way. Both thefe Arts have Contributed to the Greatest Happiness of My Life, and I wish with all my Soul I may be Inftrumental in making Them Greatly Serviceable to Ingenious Minds: they are by All Acknowledg'd to be Noble, and Sure they are Well Worthy the Moft Exalted Abilities of Human Nature. I could not with More Delight to my Self, though with Vaft Labour and Application, have Employ'd That Leifure which the Induftry in Bufinefs of Much More than Half a Century (befides That of my most Juvenile

days)

days) has Entitled me to, than in doing My Part in Remarking upon, and Explaining a Poem which for Threefcore years has been Confider'd as a "Perfect, Abfolute, Faultless Compofi"tion; the Beft Pens in the Kingdom Contending "in its Praifes, as Eclipfing all Modern Effays "whatfoever; and Rivalling, if not Excelling, "both Homer and Virgil.'

a Poem, whose Subject is the most Advantageous Imaginable; All whofe Perfons are Superiour by many Degrees to Those of any Other; All whofe Images of Things are More Great and Beautiful than any Human Poet has given Us; and whofe Design is to make its Readers Better and More Happy than Any Other Can pretend to have Aim'd at; and a Poem whence may be learnt the Whole Art of Poetry, as being Written with the utmost degree of Genius, Spirit, Accuracy and Judgment; but withal a Poem Partly Hid, not by Clouds, but its Own Luftre. if Now I have Contributed to Affift the General Eye in Contemplating this Noble Luminary; Or (to defcend to a more Familiar Allufion) if I have had Some Share in giving my Country a Paradife Loft Written in a Plain, Fair Character, inftead of One in a Hand Oftentimes Scarce Legible; and have Thus been Inftrumental in making the Best Poem in the World (All things Confider'd) of More Extenfive Ùfe, More Understood, More Delightful, More

Inftructive, and More Edifying than it Was, or Could have been made by the Poet without Somwhat Debafing his Own Work: if Moreover I have Help'd to Demolish that too Common Notion that how Excellent and Sublime Soever 'twas in Milton's Mind, and on his Tongue, in Our Hands the Poem is, at least, Imperfect for want of His Eyes to Watch over the Editor and the Printer: if befides All This I have done Justice to One to Whom I am Infinitely Oblig'd; if I have fhown a Man who has done More Honour to Our Species than Moft of Those we have been Accuftom'd to be Dazzled with and Abused by; a Character where is found Honefty, Vertue, Piety; a Mind like That of the moft Celebrated Philofophers when Suppos'd to be bleft with the Improvements of Chriftianity, together with an Heroical and Poetical Greatnefs; and This inftead of a Man who, upon Account of One Miftake in Opinion, has Hitherto, by Moft people, been Worfe thought of, as a Man, however he has been Honour'd as a Poet, than many a Worthlefs Profligate if, Laftly, by What has been done I have in any Degree been Serviceable to the Intereft of Religion and Vertue, which I am Sure Was, and Is, and Ever Shall be My Sincere Intention, I fhall Rejoice in it More than in Any thing my moft Sanguine Expectations have Yet in Store for Me whilft I am Continu'd on the Prefent Stage of Being.