SONG. Corydon beneath a willow, By a murmuring current laid, How could nature take delight, Could you feel but half the anguish, See the fire that in me reigns, O! behold a burning man; With her conquest pleas'd the damė Yes, I fain would quench your flame : She spoke and pointed to the book. THOMAS CURTEIS BORN ABOUT 1690.-DIED 1747. The very respectable family of this learned and worthy Divine, has long been settled in the western part of the County of Kent. It does not appear from Hasted, when he became Rector of Sevenoke, (or Sevenoaks, commonly called Sennock), which was in the patronage of his family, but we learn that in 1715, he was collated to the valuable vicarage of Wrotham, in the same county, of which he was before rector. He died in 1747, and was succeeded in the Rectorship of Sevenoaks by his son, Dr. Henry Curteis, who was afterwards a Prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral, and Rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, London. Dr. Curteis died at his house at Sevenoaks in 1775, and was there buried. In 1728, Mr. Thomas Curteis published his " Eirenodia; a Poem sacred to Peace and the promoting of Human Happiness: Inscribed to his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: Printed for R. Wilkin, in 8vo. St. Paul's Church Yard, 1728." As the Poem has in many parts great merit, and is a very good specimen of the Miltonic style, we shall give it entire, together with the Dedication to Archbishop Wake, and such parts of the Preface as serve to explain the nature and design of the Poem. EPISTLE DEDICATORY, To the Most reverend Father in God, WILLIAM, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Metropolitan. "MY LORD, "The favourable reception which the larger part of this poem (when lately published under another title) was honoured with by your Grace, and many other persons of great candor and judgment, encouraged me to revise and enlarge it. This carried my thoughts into a wider compass, on the most amiable subject of peace, and the blessings which naturally flow from it. "In the pleasing prospect of our common happiness, I was induced to attempt a sketch of the distinguishing favour and goodness of heaven to these nations; and of the universal joy and gratitude arising from his, Majesty's happy accession to the crown; as the only visible security of our most excellent constitution, liberties, and laws. "The primary end which I had in view, was to illustrate the truth, harmony, and inestimable benefits of the Christian institution, against the insolent attacks which have been recently made upon it, by men of vile and degenerate minds; and to shew the necessary influence of religion on the happiness of civil societies, as well as on the wise conduct of private life. "As the design is truly great and noble, I heartily wish that the too faint embellishments, wherewith I have endeavoured to set it off, bore some proportion to its dignity. "A consciousness of my unavoidable defects, is the best apology I can make to your Grace, for aspiring to so high a patronage; animated by a very large experience of your particular favours, as well as general goodness. "May your grace very long continue a public blessing to this happy church and nation. May you live to see the daring efforts of infidelity, weak and groundless in themselves, entirely sunk in their deserved shame and confusion; and the more dangerous progress of vice, immorality, and profaneness, so generally discoun⚫ tenanced by all persons in public stations, that true piety may once more shine out in its native lustre; peace, truth and righteousness be the stability of our times; and this renowned church, the glory and chief bulwark of reformed Christendom, for ever continue to have a name and praise in the earth. These are the invariable wishes, and ardent desires of "My Lord, "Your Grace's most dutiful, "And most truly devoted THE PREFACE. "Poesy, in its original design, was a lively incentive to universal virtue, and the pursuit of actions truly great and worthy, by raising the soul, in a beautiful climax of the most noble and abstracted thoughts, set off with the resistless force of metaphor, simile, number, and sound, towards the supreme happiness appointed for reasonable beings. As the art itself, when managed according to the native purity of its intentions, qualifies the religious votary to be much conversant in the sacred mysteries of heaven; it may be allowed to make the nearest approaches to a divine inspiration: or, if that sounds too harsh, it must be esteemed, at least, an innocent and useful sort of enthusiasm; being furnished with intellectual charms, powerful enough to lead away the superior faculties into a pleasing captivity; whilst they are engaged in a contemplative search into the wonders of nature and providence, teeming in the infinite perfections of the most lovely and adorable Being. But, when it becomes miserably perverted to a quite contrary end, it is capable of spreading the most dangerous and mortal infection; by inciting loose and unguarded minds, with an amazing boldness, into a debauched and vitiated taste, beyond the propensions of human nature. Happy therefore would it be, if those daring agents for the infernal world, who have enlisted themselves under the grand apostate spirit, to affront the sovereign majesty of heaven, and draw down vengeance on mankind, would at last be so wise for themselves, and so compassionate to others, as to make a timely retreat; and like the penitent Earl of Rochester, as far as possible, atone for the madness of their past conduct; that the sad effects of their pestilential wit, in promoting the ruin of many thousands whom they never knew, may not be placed to their final account, and terribly charged upon them by the Supreme Judge, and the righteous rewarder of all men. "That divine Poesy bore an honourable place in the earliest of those sacred records with which we are eminently blessed, is plain from the sublime Song of Moses |