I'd be concern'd in no litigious jar;
Belov'd by all, not vainly popular.
Whate'er assistance I had pow'r to bring,
T'oblige my country, or to serve my king,
Whene'er they call'd, I'd readily afford

My tongue, my pen, my counsel, or my sword---
If Heav'n a date of many years would give,
Thus I'd in pleasure, ease, and plenty, live----
And, when committed to the dust, I'd have
Few tears, but friendly, dropp'd into my grave;
Then would my exit so propitious be,

All men would wish to live and die like me.

THE CHOICE.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. BELL, BOOKSELLER TO HIS
ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

THE LIFE OF

JOHN POMFRET.

FEW anecdotes concerning this poet have been transmitted to posterity; and therefore the reader cannot expect a circumstantial detail either of the incidents of his life, which probably were but few, and even these not of much importance, nor an eleborate discussion of the merit of his writings. That he was a pious good man,is a truth sufficiently established from his poems, and will further appear from the following short narrative, dated in 1724, which is all we have been able to collect relative to this poet or his works.

The two pieces, Reason, and Dies Novissima, are, the only Poetical Remains of the Rev. Mr. Pomfret ; and were lately found, among some other of his papers of a private nature, in the custody of an intimate friend.

The first of them, entitled Reason, was wrote by him in the year 1700, when the debates concerning the doctrine of the Trinity were carried on with so much heat by the clergy, one against another, that King William was obliged to interpose his royal authority, by putting an end to that pernicious controversy, through an act of parliament, strictly forbidding any persons whatsoever to publish their notions on this subject. It is, indeed, a severe though very just satire upon the antagonists engaged in that dis

pute, and was published by Mr. Pomfret at the time it was wrote. The not inserting of it among his other poems, when he collected them into a volume, was on account of his having received very signal favours from some of the persons therein mentioned; but they, as well as he, being now dead, it is hoped that the revival of it at this juncture will answer the same good purposes intended by the Author in its original composition.

The other, entitled Dies Novissima; or, The Last Epiphany, a Pindaric ode, on Christ's second appearance to judge the world, is now printed from a manuscript under his own hand. It must be, indeed, confessed, that many excellent 'pens have exercised their talents upon this subject; but yet, notwithstanding the different manner in which they have treated it, I dare say there will be found such a holy warmth animating this piece throughout, that, as The Guardian has observed of divine poetry, we shall find a kind of refuge in our pleasure, and our diversion will become our safety.

Having thus given a faithful account of these valuable Remains, there is another natural piece of justice still due to the memory of the Author. In the first place, by giving some account of his family, to clearhimfrom the aspersions of fanaticism, which have been generally cast on him through a notorious mistake; and, in the next place, to defend the genuine