leisure, on a subject wherein your genius
had taken such delight: I hove chosen the fourth book as that which I
have had the good fortune of hearing in your own verses, with all the
charms of your own recitation; and have pursued this occupation.

Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter amorem
Quod te imitari aveo----

I have the honor to be with great respect,
Your most obedient humble servant,

P. L.

PREFACE.

The motives and design of this attempt are sufficiently explained in the
foregoing address, the ideas which gave rise to it have been confirmed
and enlarged in its progress. As some apology for them, it may not be
improper to observe here, that the English language seems to owe a great
portion of that energy for which it is remarked, to the old Anglo Saxon
idiom, which still forms its basis. It was enriched and softened by the
introduction of the French, though some are of opinion that most of its
foreign words, were adopted immediately from the Latin and not from any
modern tongue: and this opinion is corroborated by the observation,
that, during more than a century after the conquest, very little mixture
of French is perceivable in the style of English authors. Be that as it
may, it is certain that the constant attention of its earliest writers
to the Greek and Latin models, though sometimes carried to excess, has
added grace, variety, and extent to its construction. Sir Thomas Brown
who wrote his _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_, or Enquiry into Vulgar Errors,
about the middle of the seventeenth century, and whose style is still
much commended, says in his preface to that interesting work: "I confess
that the quality of the subject, will sometimes carry us into
expressions beyond meer English apprehensions. And indeed if elegancy of
style proceedeth, and English pens maintain that stream we have of late
observed to flow from many, we shall, in a few years, be fain to learn
Latin to understand English, and a work will prove of equal facility in
either". Milton, both in his verse and prose, has carried this
affectation to such a degree, as not only to be frequently beyond a meer
English apprehension, but even beyond that of an ordinary proficient in
the learned languages. Yet, so far were these innovations from being
considered as prejudicial, that one of the most admired writers of our
days, Dr. Johnson, did not scruple to confess, that he formed his style
upon the