tions with great regard in an Epistle upon Authors, which he wrote
about that time, but was too wise to publish, and of which only some
fragments have appeared, inserted by him in the Magazine after his
retirement.

To despair was not, however, the character of Savage; when one patronage
failed, he had recourse to another. The Prince was now extremely
popular, and had very liberally rewarded the merit of some writers whom
Mr. Savage did not think superior to himself, and therefore he resolved
to address a poem to him. For this purpose he made choice of a subject
which could regard only persons of the highest rank and greatest
affluence, and which was therefore proper for a poem intended to procure
the patronage of a prince; and having retired for some time to Richmond,
that he might prosecute his design in full tranquillity, without the
temptations of pleasure, or the solicitations of creditors, by which his
meditations were in equal danger of being disconcerted, he produced a
poem "On Public Spirit, with regard to Public Works."

The plan of this poem is very extensive, and comprises a multitude
of topics, each of which might furnish matter sufficient for a long
performance, and of which some have already employed more eminent
writers; but as he was perhaps not fully acquainted with the whole
extent of his own design, and was writing to obtain a supply of
wants too pressing to admit of long or accurate inquiries, he passes
negligently over many public works which, even in his own opinion,
deserved to be more elaborately treated.

But though he may sometimes disappoint his reader by transient touches
upon these subjects, which have often been considered, and therefore
naturally raise expectations, he must be allowed amply to compensate his
omissions by expatiating, in the conclusion of his work, upon a kind
of beneficence not yet celebrated by any eminent poet, though it now
appears more susceptible of embellishments, more adapted to exalt the
ideas and affect the passions, than many of those which have hitherto
been thought most worthy of the ornament of verse. The settlement
of colonies in uninhabited countries, the establishment of those
in security whose misfortunes have made their own country no longer
pleasing or safe, the acquisition of property without injury to any,
the appropriation of the waste and luxuriant bounties of nature, and
the enjoyment of those gifts which Heaven has scattered upon regions
uncult