Whoever has given the world the translation of part of the third
Georgic (which he calls "The Power of Love") has put me to
sufficient pains to make my own not inferior to his; as my Lord
Roscommon's "Silenus" had formerly given me the same trouble. The
most ingenious Mr. Addison, of Oxford, has also been as troublesome
to me as the other two, and on the same account; after his bees my
latter swarm is scarcely worth the hiving. Mr. Cowley's praise of a
country life is excellent, but it is rather an imitation of Virgil
than a version. That I have recovered in some measure the health
which I had lost by too much application to this work, is owing
(next to God's mercy) to the skill and care of Dr. Guibbons and Dr.
Hobbs (the two ornaments of their profession), whom I can only pay
by this acknowledgment. The whole faculty has always been ready to
oblige me, and the only one of them who endeavoured to defame me had
it not in his power. I desire pardon from my readers for saying so
much in relation to myself which concerns not them; and with my
acknowledgments to all my subscribers, have only to add that the few
notes which follow are par maniere d'acquit, because I had obliged
myself by articles to do somewhat of that kind.
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