ON

VARIOUS SUBJECTS;

SELECTED TO ENFORCE THE

PRACTICE OF VIRTUE.

AND

With a view to comprise in one Volume the

BEAUTIES

OF

ENGLISH POETRY,

BY THOMAS TOMKINS.

The pleasing Art of Poetry's design'd
To raise the thoughts and moralize the mind;
The chaste delights of virtue to inspire,
And warm the bofom with seraphic fire;
Sublime the passions, lend devotion wings,
And celebrate the First great Cause of things.

LONDON:

Printed for the Editor, and
J. WALLIS, AT YORICK'S HEAD, LUDGATE STREET.

M,DCC,LXXX,

TO THE

P U B L I C.

POETRY

may

be said to claim our first attention, as it was originally intended to express our gratitude to the Deity, and teach mnankind the most important precepts of religion and virtue; by which the human soul is not only exalted and refined, but the heart is fortified against all the various assaults of human calamities, and by which we are taught to confider happiness as entirely depending on the reflections of our own minds. We shall be sufficiently convinced of these truths, if we only consider the particular end and design of the several species of poetry.

The Epic POEM was intended to convey instructions disguised under the allegory of an