PREFACE. THE Author of the following trifles, in thus introducing them to public notice, does not do so altogether unconscious of the risk, and, it may be, the temerity of such an undertaking. To display before. the eye of public criticism what has been produced for no better defined object than the amusement of leisure or solace of weary hours, and without any surer guarantee of merit than the often misleading praise of partial friends, or one's own as often erring opinion, must, in all first instances at least, be attended by much anxiety and solicitude; and if such be the case in the instance of authors whom favourable circumstances enable to impart to their pages the graces and polish of learning and refinement, it may naturally be expected to affect in a much greater degree the anticipations of those whose productions must, from insurmountable causes, ap pear destitute of those, though not intrinsic, yet alluring and palliating, adornments. It is not, therefore, without a full measure of such anxiety that public scrutiny is invited for the following pages; for if either scantiness of education or general adverse circumstances awaken a sympathizing influence on the side of faults in similar attempts, such an influence the Author might with all justice solicit. Yet it may well be presumed that drawbacks of this nature must be to the generality of readers matters of indifference, as the fact still remains that to secure public suffrage, especially of a permanent nature, intrinsic merit must ever form the groundwork of an author's claim. Moreover, I trust I make no feigned display of that pride attributed to poetic natures in boasting that I would scorn to court for myself, upon any minor grounds whatever, either toleration for presumption or undeserved leniency towards an imbecile longing after poetical celebrity. With the anticipated gratification of success, the humiliation of failure must be risked; and humble though my walk in life has been, no other motive beyond the love of approbation-vain and ambitious though such may be-would have in duced the step I have now taken. Like the great prince of my country's bards, I was bred to labour, and glory in its rude, honest independence; and I ask nothing beyond public appreciation or condemnation of my work on its own deservings, fully trusting that if merit does exist, a generous and discriminating public will not suffer minor deficiences to detract from it. To all those who, by subscription or kind personal assistance, have thus enabled me to accomplish the highest of my cherished wishes, I beg to present my most sincere and heartfelt thanks; and a gratification which I may feel but not express yet awaits me, if, after a perusal of these pages, they shall not have entire reason to conclude that their assistance has been given altogether in vain. NOVEMBER 1859. |