S the Order in which the following Poems are plac'd, has for the most part, been purely accidental; fo neither are the Pieces of the feveral Gentlemen who have contributed to the Work printed together, but Scatter'd and interfpers'd throughout the whole. This I thought, fince no Author's Name was intended to be mention'd, might be done without making any Confufion; and probably occafion a more agreeable Variety. What I have of my own are likewise anonymous, and difpofed in the fame manner with thofe of my Friends; and if, by not avowing the Parts that belong to us, They and I may Seem to have been too careful to avoid Cenfure, I hope we shall be forgiven, when it shall be A 4 re remember'd we at the fame time lay no Claim to Praife. Here all things will be try'd, though I cannot fay how far all will bear it, by their own Value ; they have before them no celebrated Names to pre-engage the Reader's Approbation, nor exploded ones to befpeak his Diflike. I shall only fay in general, that I have received my chiefest Affiftance from a Sett of Gentlemen of both Univerfities now in London; one of which Number, a Fellow of Trinity-College in Cambridge, is Author of most of the Latin Compo-A fitions. Were this a Place proper to be particu lar in my Acknowledgments, I should enlarge on the Obligations I have to thofe Gentlemen; but as the Bufinefs of a Preface is only to give an Account of the Work, I shall add no more than to wish, which I have no Reafon to mistrust, that the World may be as well pleas'd with the good Senfe and Ingenuity of their Writing, as I am happy in their Converfation and Friendship. A few Things in this Collection are owing to other learned Gentlemen, for whofe Favours I bear a juft Gratitude; and I am proud to own, I have felected a few from among fome Papers of of Poetry, in the Hands of one of the best-known and politeft Authors of this Age. I have taken the utmoft Care I could, to fee that all had fu fice done them in the Prefs; and if I have used fome Liberties with the Pieces I receiv'd from fuch of my Affiftants as were too remote to be conferr'd with, (for to all others I fill communicated any Remark I had to offer) I hope it will be discern'd there was nothing done out of Humour or Vanity, and therefore cannot doubt but they will be ingenuous enough not to be of fended. I have admitted nothing which I knew to be before publish'd, except the Originals of two new Latin Verfions, which I thought was abfolutely neceffary to fhew the Fuftness and Elegance of the Tranflations; and a Latin Epigram, which is oppos'd to the Imitation of it, as it is newly done in English. One Poem indeed of my own was before printed, of which were diffributed among my Acquaintance a few Copies only; and one of another Author, inferted here from his own genuine Manufcript, is I am inform'd already got abroad; but, as he affures me, furreptitious and difguis'd. As } As for the Latin Copies, it must be own'd it is not very ufual to have fo great a Number of them in our Mifcellanies: but 'tis hoped the Learned will be pleas'd to find them no fewer; and that the English Readers will at least excufe them, fince they may, perhaps, have given Occafion to fome of the beft Things which hall here be met with in our own Language; for all of them, which are not themselves Verfions of former English, are tranflated, excepting the three little Pieces at the End: and I should ask Pardon of the Fair-Sex, that thofe are not; but they are of a particular Scholaftic Kind, not altogether fo proper for their Perufal. I shall not go about to vindicate this Mif cellany in every Refpect, for doubtless there are many Faults in it through my own Want of Judgment, and poffibly fome through the Miftakes of others; but if it has the good Fortune to be approv'd of in the main, I fhall think I have Reafon to be extreamly well fatisfy'd with my Succefs, THE |