Sunt lacrymae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.

Fg. H.b. 13.

Virg..

EDINBURGH:

Printed by and for MARTIN & WOTHERSPOON.

M. DCC. LXX.

PRE FA CE.

As the occafion of this Poem was real, not fictitious; fo the method pursued in it was ratherimpofed, by what spontaneously arofe in the Author's mind on that occafion, than meditated or defigned; which will appear very probable from the nature of it for it differs from the common mode of Poetry, which is from long narrations to draw fhort morals. Here, on the contrary, the narrative is fhort, and the morality arifing from it makes the bulk of the Poem. The reafon of it is, That the facts mentioned did naturally pour these moral reflections on the thought, of the.. writer.

A 3