ON

VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

BY

CHARLES LINDSAY CRAWFORD,

EARL OF CRAWFORD AND LINDSAY,

VISCOUNT GARNOCK, &c.

THE THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY R. TAYLOR AND CO., SHOE LANE,
FOR WHITE AND COCHRANE, HORACE'S HEAD,

FLEET STREET.

1810.

T

GENERAL PREFACE.

SOME of the following Poems were once published, with a Didactic Poem called "The Christian," in one volume. At that time a school-master called upon me to say that he would recommend me to circulate my Poems as much as possible, for I was ignorant of the good that they might do. He said he believed every girl in his school was the better for the Poems, and that he made every one of them learn the Dying Prostitute, in particular, by heart. This with other considerations induced me to correct, enlarge, and circulate my Poems. "The Christian," is now published in a volume

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by itself, in eight books; has undergone six editions, and I hope is near a seventh.

I would not only wish to write morally myself, but to encourage that desire in others. A poet, as well as every other author, when he sits down to write to the world, especially if he is a man of genius, should consider that he is entering upon a very awful thing. Our Saviour says, "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgement*." If every idle word in conversation is to be accounted for, how much more is every deliberate word in writing. If the works of an author should be popular, the good or the evil that he will do may be very extensive and permanent. His works may go over the world, and last for ever. It is from this stimulus, this wish to do good, from my talents whatever they are, and not from any

vulgar desire of praise or of profit, that I now write. As the celebrated Mr. Mason says, in the elegant and beautiful Exordium to his Poem, The English Garden,

"For deem not ye that I resume the Lyre,

To court the world's applause, my years mature
Have learnt to slight the toy.”

Many years ago, an old and much-esteemed Quaker waited upon me to supply me with some books and facts relative to the SlaveTrade, against which I was then writing, and said, "My dear friend, I love thee for thy generous indignation against the Slave-Trade, thou art right here; but for thy soul's sake beware, beware of poetry, for sometimes the preachers are nothing to the poets." Some have even gone so far as to say, "Give me your bards, and I will rule your country."

There is a passion for writing epic poems, which prevails in our days, and which has been

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