being kindly
permitted to peruse the sheets of Mr Clarke's valuable work on the
_History of Navigation_, I conceived (without supposing _historically_
with him that all ideas of navigation were derived from the ark of Noah)
that I might adopt the circumstance _poetically_, as capable of
furnishing an unity of design; besides which, it had the advantage of
giving a more serious cast and character to the whole.

To obviate such objections as might be made by those who, from an
inattentive survey, might imagine there was any carelessness of
arrangement, I shall lay before the reader a general analysis of the
several books; and, I trust, he will readily perceive a leading
principle, on which the poem begins, proceeds, and ends.

I feel almost a necessity for doing this in _justice_ to myself, as some
compositions have been certainly misunderstood, where the _connexion_
might, by the least attention, have been perceived. In going over part
of the same ground which I had taken before, I could not always avoid
the use of similar expressions.

I trust I need not apologise for having, in some instances, departed
from strict historical facts. It is not true that Camoens sailed with De
Gama, though, from the authority of Voltaire, it has been sometimes
supposed that he did. There are other circumstances for which I may have
less reason to expect pardon. The Egyptians were never, or but for a
short time, a maritime nation. In answer to this, I must say, that
_history_ and _poetry_ are two things; and though the poet has no right
to _contradict_ the historian, yet, if he find two opinions upon points
of history, he may certainly take that which is most susceptible of
poetical ornament; particularly if it have sufficient plausibility, and
the sanction of respectable names.

In deducing the first maritime attempts from _Thebes_, so called from
_Thebaoth_, the _Ark_, founded by the sons of Cush, who first inhabited
the caves on the granite mountains of Ethiopia, I have followed the
idea of Bruce, which has many testimonies, particularly that of
Herodotus, in its favour. In making the ships of Ammon first pass the
straits of Babelmandel, and sail to Ophir, I have the authority of Sir
Isaac Newton. But still these points must, from their nature, be
obscure; the poet, however, has a right to build upon them, whilst what
he advances is not in _direct contradiction_ to all historical admitted
facts. He may take what is _shadowy_, if it