Page:Poems on several occasions (IA poemsonseveraloc00boyc).pdf/14

ii tronage; it certainly must be much more so to one, who with a just diffidence of his claim to any superior merit, confines his ambition to rank among the minor poets.

Amid' the nipping blasts of malevolence and censure, the tender shoots of Parnassus are apt to shrink and wither, but beam'd upon by the sun of protection unfold their beauties, and expand, through every leaf to inhale the genial ray. May it be my good fortune not to be thought unworthy of the honour your has been graciously pleas'd to grant, of prefixing your name to these poems! A name so pre-eminently glorious in our British annals; which every tongue in the present age repeats with extacy, at recollection of the beneficence and