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A
LETTER OF ADVICE
TO
A YOUNG POET.
TOGETHER WITH A PROPOSAL FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF POETRY IN IRELAND.
Sic honor & nomen divinis vatibus atque
Carminibus venit. Hor.
Sir,
AS I have always professed a friendship for you, and have therefore been more inquisitive into your conduct and studies than is usually agreeable to young men; so I must own I am not a little pleased to find, by your last account, that you have entirely bent your thoughts to English poetry, with design to make it your profession and business. Two reasons incline me to encourage you in this study; one, the narrowness of your present circumstances; the other, the great use of poetry to mankind and society, and in every employment of life[1]. Upon
these
- ↑ "Perhaps it is one of the best things that can be said of poetry, that it helps us to pass over the toils and troubles of this tiresome journey, our life; as horses are encouraged and spirited up the better to bear their labour, by the jingling of bells about their heads. Indeed, as to myself, I have been used to this odd cor-
" dial
