As

PREFACE.

S the occafion of this Poem was real, not fi

tious; fo the method pursued in it, was rath impofed, by what spontaneously arofe in the author mind on that occafion, than meditated or defigne Which will appear very probable from the nature of i For it differs from the common mode of Poetry, whic is, from long narrations to draw fhort morals. Her on the contrary, the narrative is fhort, and the mora lity arifing from it makes the bulk of the Poem. Th reafon of it is, That the facts mentioned did naturall pour thefe moral reflections on the thought of th writer.