_When I was prevail'd upon to make a Fourth Publication of these_ Poems _with a great many Additions, it was told me, That without a_ Preface _the Book would be unfashionable; Universal Custom had made it a Debt, and in this Age the_ Bill of Fare _was as necessary as the_ Entertainment. _To be Civil therefore, and to Comply with Expectation, instead of an elaborate Harangue in Commendation of the Art in general, or what, and what Qualifications go to the making up of a_ Poet _in particular, and without such artificial Imbellishments as use to be the Ornament of Prefaces, as_ Sayings of Philosophers, Ends of Verses, Greek, Latin, Hungarian, French, Welch, _or_ Italian, _Be it known unto the Reader, That in my poor Opinion_ Poetry _has a very near Resemblance to the modern Experiment of the_ Ambling-Saddle; _It's a good Invention for smoothing the_ Trott of Prose; _That's the Mechanical use of it. But Physically it gives present Ease to the_ Pains _of the_ Mind, _contracted by violent Surfeit of either good or bad Usage in the World. To be serious, 'tis an Innocent Help to_ Sham _a Man's time when it lies on his hands and his Fancy can relish nothing else. I speak but my own Experience; when any Accident hath either pleas'd or vex'd me beyond my power of expressing either my Satisfaction or Indignation in downright_ Prose, _I found it seasonable for_ Rhiming; _and I believe from what follows it may be discern'd when 'twas_ Fair Weather, _when_ Changeable, _and when the_ Quicksilver _fell down to_ Storm _and_ Tempest. _As to the Measures observ'd by me, I always took a peculiar delight in the_ Pindarique _strain, and that for two Reasons, First, it gave me a liberty now and then to correct the saucy forwardness of a_ Rhime, _and to lay it aside till I had a mind to admit it; And secondly, if my Sense fell at any time too short for my_ Stanza, (_and it will often happen so in Versifying_) _I had then opportunity to fill it up with a_ Metaphor _little to the purpose, and (upon occasion) to run that_ Metaphor _stark mad into an_ Allegory, _a practice very frequent and of admirable use amongst the_ Moderns, _especially the_ Nobless _of the Faculty. But in good earnest, as to the_ Subjects, _which came in my way to write upon, I must declare that I have chosen only such as might be treated within the Rules of_ Decency, _and without offence either to_ Religion _or_ good Manners. _The Caution I receiv'd (by Tradition) from the Incomparable Mr._ Cowley, _and him I must ever acknowledge but to imitate, if any of the ensuing Copies may deserve the name of_ Good _or_ Indifferent. _I have not vanity enough to prescribe how a_ Muse _ought to be Courted, and I want leisure to borrow from some Treatises I have seen, which look like so many_ Academies _of_ Complements _for that purpose. I have known a man, who when he was about to write would screw his face into more disguises than_ Scaramuccio, _or a_ Quaker _at a Meeting when his Turn came to