He disliked chess as occasioning a great waste of time, and requiring a useless application of thought. He was fond of archery, and practised it, till his increasing corpulency rendered it fatiguing. He always used a great deal of exercise. To a very correct and refined taste in poetry, painting, and music, he added the rare accomplishments of some actual practice in each. In music he was esteemed a pleasing performer upon the violoncello.

In his latter years he had recourse to wine, as a refuge from thought.

In his person he was of the middle size, not elegantly, and yet not awkwardly, formed. His eyes were black and piercing, but with an expression of sensibility somewhat bordering on melancholy, except when engaged in cheerful discourse, and then they were lively and animated. W. M.

то

THE READER.

IN compiling the following volume, attention

has been paid to what ought to be the leading features of all such productions, variety. Its utility has been consulted in stating the works from which the extracts are made, as it will enable those who may wish to quote a passage, to refer to the source. To make the extracts as distinct as possible from all correlative matter, has also been attended to.

Without strictly regarding the title of the volume, it has been thought adviseable to include the whole of Dr. Beattie's poems; for, being few in number, it would enable the purchasers of his Beauties to obtain a work which, alone, usually sells for more than the price of the present volume. The notes, too, of Gray,

which are now, for the first time published in connection with the Minstrel, are, of themselves, an interesting feature of this work. It is pleasing to behold one poet sitting in judgement upon the works of another, and in the confidence of friendship.

ΤΟ

THE MINSTREL.

THE design was, to trace the progress of a poetical genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason, till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a MINSTREL, that is, as an itinerant poet and musician; a character which, according to the notions of our forefathers, was not only respectable, but sacred.

I have endeavoured to imitate SPENSER in the measure of his verse, and in the harmony, simplicity, and variety, of his composition. Antique expressions I have avoided; admitting, however, some old words, where they seemed to suit the subject; but I hope none will be found that are now obsolete, or in any degree not intelligible to a reader of English poetry.

To those who may be disposed to ask, what could induce me to write in so difficult a measure, I can only answer, that it pleases my ear, and seems, from its Gothic structure and original, to bear some relation to the subject and spirit of the poem. It admits both simplicity and magnificence of sound and of language, beyond any other stanza that I am acquainted with. It allows the sententiousness of the couplet, as well as the more complex modulation of blank verse. What some critics have remarked, of its uniformity growing, at last, tiresome to the ear, will be found to hold true, only where the poetry is faulty in other respects.

B