ABSTRACT
The former volume of JOHN CLARE’S Poems was published on the 16th of January, 1820. It immediately received the most flattering notice from several periodical publications, and the interest which was directly taken in the Poet’s fate by all ranks, is a circumstance most clearly indicative of the good taste and generous feelings of the nation. A pleasant and judicious account of the author, which was published in the first number of the London Magazine, greatly contributed to this rapid acknowledgment of the merits of the work, and of the justice of the author’s pretensions to the distinction of public patronage. It was written by Mr. Gilchrist, of Stamford, whose kindness to CLARE did not cease with that effort in his favour. To him, and all those who, by sympathising with CLARE in the days of his distress, have a peculiar title to be named among his benefactors, the pleasure of befriending a man of true genius is of itself a sufficient reward:— ——The praise is better than the price, The glory eke much greater than the gain—
