invaluable works of our elder writers, I had almost said the works of Shakespeare and

Milton, are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies,

and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse.-When I think upon this degrading

thirst after outrageous stimulation, I am almost ashamed to have spoken of the feeble

endeavour made in these volumes to counteract it; and, reflecting upon the magnitude of

the general evil, I should be oppressed with no dishonourable melancholy, had I not a

deep impression of certain inherent and indestructible qualities of the human mind, and

likewise of certain powers in the great and permanent objects that act upon it, which are

equally inherent and indestructible; and were there not added to this impression a belief,

that the time is approaching when the evil will be systematically opposed, by men of

greater powers, and with far more distinguished success.

Having dwelt thus long on the subjects and aim of these Poems, I shall request the

Reader's permission to apprise him of a few circumstances relating to their style, in

order, among other reasons, that he may not censure me for not having performed what I

never attempted. The Reader will find that personifications of abstract ideas rarely occur

in these volumes; and are utterly rejected, as an ordinary device to elevate the style, and

raise it above prose. My purpose was to imitate, and, as far as possible, to adopt the very

language of men; and assuredly such personifications do not make any natural or regular

part of that language. They are, indeed, a figure of speech occasionally prompted by

passion, and I have made use of them as such; but have endeavoured utterly to reject

them as a mechanical device of style, or as a family language which Writers in metre

seem to lay claim to by prescription. I have wished to keep the Reader in the company of

flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him. Others who pursue a

different track will interest him likewise; I do not interfere with their claim, but wish to

prefer a claim of my own. There will also be found in these volumes little of what is

usually called poetic diction; as much pains has been taken to avoid it as is ordinarily

taken to produce it; this has been done for the reason already alleged, to bring my

language near to the language of men; and further, because the pleasure which I have

proposed to myself to impart, is of a kind very different from that which is supposed by

many persons to be the proper object of poetry. Without being culpably particular, I do

not know how to give my Reader a more exact notion of the style in which it was my

wish and intention to write, than by informing him that I have at all times endeavoured to

look steadily at my subject; consequently, there is I hope in these Poems little falsehood

of description, and my ideas are expressed in language fitted to their respective

importance. Something must have been gained by this practice, as it is friendly to one

property of all good poetry, namely, good sense: but it has necessarily cut me off from a

large portion of phrases and figures of speech which from father to son have long been

regarded as the common inheritance of Poets. I have also thought it expedient to restrict

myself still further, having abstained from the use of many expressions, in themselves

proper and beautiful, but which have been foolishly repeated by bad Poets, till such

feelings of disgust are connected with them as it is scarcely possible by any art of

association to overpower.

If in a poem there should be found a series of lines, or even a single line, in which the

language, though naturally arranged, and according to the strict laws of metre, does not

differ from that of prose, there is a numerous class of critics, who, when they stumble

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