PREFACE.

of nature. By labour a man may become a tolerable imitator of Spenser, Shakspeare, or Milton; and may heap together pretty compound epithets, as paie- eyed, meek- eyed, and the like; but unless he be born a poet, he will never attain the genuine spirit of poetry.

7. And here I beg leave to mention a thought which has been long upon my mind, and which I should long ago have inserted in the public papers, had I not been unwilling to stir up a nest of hornets. Many gentlemen have done my brother and me( though without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome so to do, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them; for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore, I must beg of them one of these two favours: either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.

8. But to return. That which is of Infinitely more moment than the spirit of poetry, is the spirit of piety. And I trust all persons of real judgment will find this breathing through the whole Collection. It is in this view chiefly, that I would recommend it to every truly pious reader, as a means of raising or quickening the spirit of devotion; of confirming his faith; of enlivening his hope; and of kindling and increasing his love to God and man. When Poetry thus keeps its place, as the handmaid of Piety, it shall attain, not a poor perish­able wreath, but a crown that fadeth not away.

London, Oct. 20, 1779.

JOHN WESLEY.

N.B. The Additional Hymns at the end of this book, and a few others, distinguished by the prefix of an aste­risk, which are inserted in this edition, were not in the editions published during the life of Mr. Wesley. A 3