ABSTRACT
It is necessary that I should say something respecting the following Poems. They are selected from a great many, written at different times and under very different feelings; and if I do not crave the reader’s indulgence for them, I shall be heartily satisfied of his good opinion, if he gives me the same encouragement as he has done with the others I have published; for if I wished to have it thought that I was careless of censure, or heedless of praise, I should contradict my feelings. They were written to please my own mind; but it will be a most gratifying addition to find that my old friends are as warm as usual, and waiting to cheer me with the welcome praises that encouraged me in the beginning, though ill health has almost rendered me incapable of doing anything. If I write a short Preface, it is from no vanity of being thought concise, but on the contrary, from a feeling of inability to say anything more to the purpose, and with much confidence I leave my little book to the kindness of the reader and the public.
