What sorrow was, thou bad'st him know: GRAY'S Ode to Adversity Happy the man who sees a God employed COWPER First American, from the Sixth London Edition. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY SWORDS, STANFORD, AND CO No. 152 Broadway. gift 1-11-1933 PREFACE. WHEN an Author ventures to communicate his reflections to the Public, it is surely required of him, that he at least should be convinced of the necessity as well as the value of what he has to offer. Candour demands that he should be actuated by no sinister or unworthy motive; but that the governing principle of his conduct should be a simple desire to convey instruction or amusement to mankind at large. And when he ventures to select the same field of moral observation and inquiry that others have previously chosen; when he professes to believe there yet remain many beauties unexplored in the same tract, and indulges the hope that he can throw a new and more pleasing light on truths which others have investigated • before him; it is justly asked on what ground he rests his claim to public attention, and why he conceives it necessary to add another to the countless multitude of ephemeral productions. |