PREFACE.
TIS the Criticks Objection to Lucan, that his Poem is too Historical; but it must be said in his Defence, that tho' for that Reason he may perhaps delight less; yet he certainly Instructs more, which is the better End of Poetry. We have a more distinct Idea of the Characters of Cæsar, Pompey, Cato, and Brutus, in him, than we have of Augustus (under the Person of Æneas) in Virgil. We have Truth and Nakedness in one; Fiction and Embellishment in the other. The same Fault (I beg Pardon for the Allusion) will probably be found with this Paper of Verses: But I have this to say for my self, that tho' I may fall as far short of some of the Whig Writers in Poetry, as Lucan
A 3
does
