Her tender pupils for the various war, Then shall my youthful fons, to Wisdom led Shall purge their minds from all impure allays And fwell th' ennobled heart with bleft benevolence. Then alfo fhall this emblematick pile, By magick whilom fram'd to fympathize With all the fortunes of this changeful isle, Still, as my fons in fame and virtue rise, Grow with their growth, and to th' applauding skies The multiplying niches, fresh supplies Of worthies fhall fucceed, with equal pace Aye following their fires in virtue's glorious race. XCI. Fir'd XCI. Fir'd with th' idea of her future fame Who for their various merit erst renown'd, On these that royal dame her ravish'd eyes Forth from the ground the length'ning structure rise She to the Fairy Youth with pleasure fain Those sculptur'dchiefs did fhew, and their great lives explain.|| Great lives explain.] I cannot forbear taking occafion from these words to make my acknowledgments to the writers of Biographia Britannica, for the pleasure and profit I have lately received from perufing the two first volumes of that ufeful and entertaining work, of which the monumental ftructure above mentioned, decorated with the ftatues of great and and good men, is no improper emblem. This work, which contains the lives of the most eminent perfons, who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest ages, down to the present time, appears to me, as far as it has hitherto gone, to be executed with great spirit, accuracy, and judgment; and deferves, in my opinion, to be encouraged by all, who have at heart the boncar of their country, and that of their particular families and friends; and who can any ways affift the ingenious and laborious authors, to render as perfect as poffible, a defign fo apparently calculated to ferve the publick, by Jetting in the trueft and fulleft light the characters of perfons already generally, though perhaps too indiftinctly known; and reviving from obfcurity and oblivion, examples of private and retired merit, which, though lefs glaring and oftentatious than the former, are not, however, of a lefs extenfive or lefs beneficial influence. To thofe, who may happen not to have feen this repofitory of British glory, I cannot give a better idea of it, than in the following lines of Virgil: Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera paffi ; Virg. Æn. L. 6. The End of the FIRST CANTO. VOL. IV. D PEN PENSHURST. INSCRIBED TO WILLIAM PERRY, Esq; AND The Honble Mrs. ELIZABETH PERRY. By the late Mr. F. COVENTRY. ENIUS of Penfhurft old! GE Who faw'ft the birth of each immortal oak, Here facred from the stroke; And all thy tenants of yon turrets bold, Infpir'ft to arts or arms; * Where Sidney his Arcadian landscape drew, Genuine from thy Doric view; And patriot † Algernon unshaken rofe Above infulting foes; And Sacchariffa nurs'd her angel charms: O fuffer Sir Philip Sidney. † Algernon Sidney. To land me on the focial floor; Nor does the heiress of these shades deny Where Beauty shines, and Friendship warm, With them in aged groves to walk, And lose my thoughts in artless talk, And shifts each hour her tinsel hue, |