Moonlight, a Poem: with Several Copies of Verses/Dedication
TO
JOHN, LORD ELDON:
LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN:
HIGH STEWARD OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
My Lord,
In this fair Morning of the Liberty of Europe, after a long Night of Solicitude, and Counsel, in which Your Lordship's Wisdom has been eminently seen; I approach Your Lordship with a Poem, which, it may be, shall beguile You of some Moments of severer Thought. This Labour of two Days, otherwise undeserving of Your Lordship's Favour, I present to You on two Accounts: first, because I conceive, that it contains no Thought unworthy of Your Lordship's Greatness, founded on Virtue; and, secondly, because I have herein expressed my boundless Debt of Gratitude to Him who preceded Your Lordship in the Chair of Counsel and State; and Who, as He was the Ornament and Founder of his Family, so was He a fair and majestick Pillar of the Commonwealth. Between Him and Your Lordship there ever existed a wise and affectionate Friendship and I, there- fore, commit to Your Favour my own humble Tribute to his Memory, and the Verses, which I have preserved, of his Writing wherein Your Lordship's excellent Taste and Learning will discover, that no greater Man had been in the Translating of the elder Poets, if either his Fortune, or his Pleasure, had led him to that Pursuit. Desiring to live in Your Lordship's Favour, I subscribe Myself, in all Truth,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient,
and faithful Servant,