Joseph Downsend -- THE UNION: = OR SELECT SCOTS and ENGLISH POEMS. -Dubiam facientia carmina palmam. Juv. EDINBURGH: Printed for ARCHIBALD MONRO & DAVID MURRAY. M.DCC.LIII. Blackwell 138 PREFACE. 35769 As the mind of man is ever fond of variety, no thing seems better calculated to entertain, than a judicious collection of the smaller (tho' not on that account less-labour'd) productions of eminent poets: an entertainment not unlike that which we receive from surveying a finish'd landschape, or well-dispos'd piece of shell-work: where each particular object, tho' fingly beautiful, and sufficiently striking by itself, receives an additional charm, thus (as Milton expresses 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 Tonson. 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 sufficiently scrupulous and cautious in their choice, as several pieces are admitted, among the reft, which would otherwise utterly have perished, and which had no other recommendation than that they served to swell the volume. Since this, many miscellanies have been published both in Scotland and England: to enumerate which would be no less tedious than useless. It will be sufficient to remark, that thro' |