ADVERTISEMENT. SHOULD the corrections made in the present Edition appear to be few, and the amendments trifling, while many inaccuracies and other blemishes remain unnoticed; the Author entreats that a very unsettled state of health may be an apology for all that seems like want of care: he has not, as in other times, been favoured with communications from his Friends, with exception of those from a Reverend Gentleman in his own neighbourhood, who will find his observations (unfortunately for the Poem, begun too late to extend to many Letters) all carefully noticed as they are thankfully acknowledged; and should another opportunity ever arrive, he hopes to become more acquainted with the errors of the work, and to be better provided with corrections for them. Objections of other kind, the Author has read, and is much disposed to do honour to the Critics who made them; but as they respect the very nature and substance of his book, he fears they must ever remain with it, the radical evil for which there is no redress. That the Borough is the Village enlarged; that it has little interest as a Borough; that its subjects are unconnected, and its persons without a common tie; all this is readily acknowledged, nor can the Author attempt to make an apology for what he foresaw and voluntarily admitted. If by objecting a want of connection and harmony of parts, it is meant that they might have been preserved with his materials, this was found to be impossible; but if it implies that other materials are wanted, he can only answer, that they were not at his disposal. Another objection is made to the levity with which the subject of Religion is said to be treated: this the Author cannot admit; it is not religion, but what hurts religion, what is injurious to all true devotion, and at enmity with all sober sense, which is thus unceremoniously treated; false and bigoted zeal, weak and obstinate enthusiasm, ignorance that presumes to teach, and intolerant pride that boasts of humility: these alone are objects of his attack. In the note to page 249, he has proved that his description of the doctrine he censured was founded in reality, and in fact it is no easy matter to write up to the folly and ignorance of these men. An author has not the less reverence for Religion, because, in warring with Fanaticism, he uses the only weapon by which it is said to be vulnerable; and he doubts not but he shall be excused (nay approved, so far as respects his intention,) by the public in general, and more especially by that part of it (and that by no means a small part), who think the persons so described, while they are themselves safe," from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne," are the very people, from whom, did their power correspond with their wishes, neither the Pulpit nor the Throne (if the Bar should escape) would remain in safety. It has been observed also, that the story of the Parish-Clerk has a bad moral, as it insinuates that there are certain temptations under which we cannot fail to yield, and, in fact, that we are puppets of an over-powering destiny. The Author is sorry that any such inferences should be drawn from this relation, or from any other part of his book: what he meant to exhibit was rather the fall of a conceited and ostentatious man, who, when tempted, had not recourse to proper means of resistance, and an illustration of that Scripture-precept, "Let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Neither did the Author, on this or any other occasion, mean to deny the doctrine of seducing spirits, or one who is the chief of them; what he presumed to censure was the enthusiasm and conceit of those who take every absurd or perverse suggestion of their own spirits for the unquestionable temptation of the evilone, and every denial of a soliciting appetite, for a conquest over that enemy of souls; thus perpetually administering fresh food for enthusiastic delight, and new triumph for spiritual pride. THE BOROUGH. LETTER I. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. These did the Ruler of the Deep ordain, Pope's Homer's Iliad, Book vi. line 45. Such scenes has Deptford, Navy-building town, Such Lambeth, envy of each band and gown, Pope's Imitation of Spenser. Et cum cœlestibus undis Equoreæ miscentur aquæ: caret ignibus æther, Cacaque nox premitur tenebris hiemisque suisque; Discutient tamen has, præbentque micantia lumen Fulmina fulmineis ardescunt ignibus undæ. Ovid. Metamorph. lib. xi. ver. 520. |