er body, likewise, set at liberty."

It is impossible to read this epitaph without being animated to bear the
evils of life with constancy, and to support the dignity of human nature
under the most pressing afflictions, both, by the example of the
heroine, whose grave we behold, and the prospect of that state in which,
to use the language of the inspired writers, "The poor cease from their
labours, and the weary be at rest."--

The other is upon Epictetus, the Stoick philosopher:

[Greek: Doulos Epiktaetos genomaen, kai som anapaeros,
Kai peniaen Iros, kai philos Athanatois.]

"Servus Epictetus, mutilatus corpore, vixi
Pauperieque Irus, curaque prima deum."

"Epictetus, who lies here, was a slave and a cripple, poor as the
beggar in the proverb, and the favourite of heaven."

In this distich is comprised the noblest panegyrick, and the most
important instruction. We may learn from it, that virtue is
impracticable in no condition, since Epictetus could recommend himself
to the regard of heaven, amidst the temptations of poverty and slavery;
slavery, which has always been found so destructive to virtue, that in
many languages a slave and a thief are expressed by the same word. And
we may be, likewise, admonished by it, not to lay any stress on a man's
outward circumstances, in making an estimate of his real value, since
Epictetus the beggar, the cripple, and the slave, was the favourite of
heaven.

PREFACE TO AN ESSAY[1]
ON MILTON'S USE AND IMITATION OF THE MODERNS
IN HIS PARADISE LOST.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1750.

It is now more than half a century since the Paradise Lost, having broke
through the clouds with which the unpopularity of the author, for a
time, obscured it, has attracted the general admiration of mankind; who
have endeavoured to compensate the errour of their first neglect, by
lavish praises and boundless veneration. There seems to have arisen a
contest, among men of genius and literature, who should most advance its
honour, or best distinguish its beauties. Some have revised editions,
others have published commentaries, and all have endeavoured to make
their particular studies, in some degree, subservient to this general
emulation.

Among the inquiries, to which this ardour of criticism has naturally
given occasion, none is more obscure in itself, or more worthy of
rational curiosity, than a retrospection of the progress of this mighty
genius, in the construction of