course, as usual, been given to those poems (by
Pope, Thomson, Collins, Gray, Goldsmith, Crabbe, Cowper, and Burns) which
have been loved or admired from their day to our own. But I have ventured
to admit also a few which, though forgotten to-day, either were popular
in the eighteenth century or possess marked historical significance. In
other words, I present not solely what the twentieth century considers
enduringly great in the poetry of the eighteenth, but also a
little--proportionately very little--of what the eighteenth century
itself (perhaps mistakenly) considered interesting. This secondary
purpose accounts for my inclusion of passages from such neglected authors
as Mandeville, Brooke, Day, and Darwin. The passages of this sort are too
infrequent to annoy him who reads for aesthetic pleasure only; and to the
student they will illustrate movements in the spirit of the age which
would otherwise be unrepresented, and which, as the historical
introduction points out, are an integral part of its thought and feeling.
The inclusion of passages from "Ossian," though almost unprecedented,
requires, I think, no defense against the literal-minded protest that
they are written in "prose."

Students of poetical history will find it illuminating to read the
passages in chronological order (irrespective of authorship); and in
order to facilitate this method I have given in the table of contents the
date of each poem.

E. B.

CONTENTS

JOHN POMFRET
THE CHOICE (1700)

DANIEL DEFOE
THE TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMAN (1701),
ll. 119-132, 189-228, 312-321
A HYMN TO THE PILLORY (1703),
STANZAS 1, 3, 5-6, 28-30

JOSEPH ADDISON
THE CAMPAIGN (1704),
ll. 259-292
DIVINE ODE (1712)

MATTHEW PRIOR
TO A CHILD OF QUALITY (1704)
TO A LADY (1704)
THE DYING HADRIAN TO HIS SOUL (1704)
A BETTER ANSWER (1718)

BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE
THE GRUMBLING HIVE (1705, 1714),
ll. 1-6, 26-52, 149-156, 171-186,
198-239, 327-336, 377-408

ISAAC WATTS
THE HAZARD OF LOVING THE CREATURES (1706)
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT (1709)
O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST (1719)
A CRADLE HYMN (1719)

ALEXANDER POPE
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM (1711),
ll. 1-18, 46-51, 68-91, 118-180,
215-423, 560-577, 612-642
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK (1714),
CANTOS II AND III
TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD, BOOK VI (1717),
ll. 562-637
AN ESSAY ON MAN (1733-34),
EPISTLE I; 11, 1-18; IV, 93-204,