12-14-5011 FP Qunning 11-20-50 72426 PREFACE. T HE poems which compose the present volume were published almost thirty years before the appearance of the PARADISE LOST. During that interval, they were so totally difregarded, at least by the general reader, as scarcely to have conferred on their author the reputation of a writer of verses; much less the distinction and character of a true poet. After the publication of the PARADISE LOST, whose acknowledged merit and increasing celebrity might have naturally contributed to call other pieces of the fame author, and of a kindred excellence, into a more confpicuous point of view, they long continued to remain in their original state of neglect and obscurity. At the infancy of their circulation, and for some years afterwards, they were overwhelmed in the commotions of faction, the conflict of religious disputation, and the profeffional ignorance of fanaticism. In succeeding years, when tumults and ufurpations were at an end, and leisure and literature returned, the times were still unpropitious, and the public tafte was unprepared for their a2 |