AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM.


WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCXII.

'Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.'

MART.


TO MRS ARABELLA FERMOR.

Madam,--It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this
piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was
intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and
good-humour enough to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded
follies, but at their own. But as it was communicated with the air of a
secret, it soon found its way into the world. An imperfect copy having
been offered to a bookseller, you had the good-nature for my sake to
consent to the publication of one more correct: this I was forced to,
before I had executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely
wanting to complete it.

The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that
part which the deities, angels, or demons are made to act in a poem: for
the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies: let an
action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the
utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new
and odd foundation--the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits.