I know Lucinda this I ought to do, But oh! 'tis hard my frailties to subdue; My headstrong passions will resistance make, And all my firmed resolutions make. I for my daughter's death did long prepare, And hop'd I should the stroke with temper bear, But when it came grief quickly did prevail, And I soon found my boasted courage fail: Yet still I strove, but 'twas alas! in vain, My sorrow did at length th' ascendant gain: But I'm resolv'd I will no longer yield; By reason led, I'll once more take the field, And there from my insulting passions try, To gain a full, a glorious victory: Which 'till I've done, I never will give o'er But still fight on, and think of peace no more; With an unwearied courage still contend, 'Till death, or conquest, doth my labour end. [Footnote 1: Preface to her Essays.] * * * * * THOMAS CREECH. This gentleman was born near Sherborne in Dorsetshire, and bred up at the free school in that town, under Mr. Carganven, a man of eminent character, to whom in gratitude he inscribes one of the Idylliums of Theocritus, translated by him. His parents circumstances not being sufficient to bestow a liberal education upon him, colonel Strangeways, who was himself a man of taste and literature, took notice of the early capacity of Creech, and being willing to indulge his violent propensity to learning, placed him at Wadham College in Oxford, in the 16th year of his age, anno 1675, being then put under the tuition of two of the fellows. In the year 1683 he was admitted matter of arts, and soon elected fellow of All-soul's College; at which time he gave distinguished proofs of his classical learning, and philosophy, before those who were appointed his examiners. The first work which brought our author into reputation, was his translation of Lucretius, which succeeded so well, that Mr. Creech had a party formed for him, who ventured to prefer him to Mr. Dryden, in point of genius. Mr. Dryden himself highly commended his Lucretius, and in his preface to the second volume of Poetical Miscellanies thus characterises it. 'I now call to mind what I owe to the ingenious, and learned translator of Lucretius. I have not here designed to rob him of any part of that commendation, which he has so justly acquired by the whole author, whose fragments only fall to my portion. The ways of our translation are very different; he follows him more closely than I have done, which became an interpreter to the whole poem. I take more liberty, because it best suited with my design, which was to make him as pleasing as I could. He had been too voluminous, had he used my method, in so long a work; and I had certainly taken his, had I made it my business to translate the whole. The preference then is justly his; and I join with Mr. Evelyn in the confession of it, with this additional advantage to him, that his reputation is already established in this poet; mine is to make its