THE TRANSLATOR'S _Advertisement_.
The following Lectures, being frequently referred to by the Author of
them in the Preface and Notes to his Translation of _Virgil_,
were thought proper to be communicated to the World in _English_,
that both Works might speak the same Language as well as Sentiment, and
address themselves to the same Sett of Readers. Whatever Reasons have
been given for translating _Virgil_, and writing an _English_
Comment on him, may be urged in behalf of these _English_ Lectures,
which as they are an Illustration of Poetry in general, so are they of
_Virgil_ in particular.
The Notes to this Edition were chiefly added as it went through the
Press: In which though I sometimes differ from my ingenious Author,
yet I hope not with greater Freedom than he has taken with others,
and will pardon in me. I am well aware how easy it is to let some
Mistakes slip in the Heat of Composition: And when these had once pass'd
the Press, the Author, I suppose, was not very sollicitous to re-examine
minutely the subsequent Editions; satisfied with the Approbation he had
received from that learned Body before whom his Lectures were first
delivered. An Honour which I shall never wish to see diminish'd
by any thing I can say, or any one else: And shall now therefore with
much greater Pleasure take this Opportunity of repeating the
following Testimony of them from Mr. _Felton_'s _Preface to his
Dissertation on Reading the Classics_ p. xxi, _&c._
_What a polite Critic may do, if he pleases, and in how different an
Aspect Criticism appears, when formed by Men of Parts and Fire, we
may see in the three Volumes of Dr._ Trapp's Prælectiones
Poeticæ._A Work that cannot be enough commended, whether we consider
the Curiousness of his Observations, the Justness of his Remarks, the
Truth and Importance of his Rules, the Aptness and Beauty of his
Examples, Force and Elegance of his Style, and the Penetration of his
Wit and Judgment: A Piece in such Perfection of Beauty, that he gives
the Rules with the same Spirit we find in the Examples; and maketh those
Dissertations, which in heavy, formal Hands, would have looked crabbed,
dull, and dry, shine in all the Graces, that Life, and Ease, and Vigour
can adorn them with. We see how entertaining the severest Criticisms
are in a Poet's Hand, and what Life and Spirit he can give to the
dryest Part of his Subject, while he prescribes the Rules and fixes the
Laws of Poetic Diction, weigheth the Importance of Words, and considers
the several Ways of Expression peculiar to the Poets. And if Men of
such Learning and such Parts would undertake this Province, I cannot
help repeating it, we should see more and more into the Propriety,
Strength, and Compass, and all the hidden Beauties of the_ Greek _and_
Latin _Tongues._