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course of my life made a few attempts at rhyme I am no Poet, and do not wish to be suspected of such a failing, seeing that Macaulay the Historian in his essay on Milton corroborates Shakespeare's Poetico-lunatic theory, and asserts that "no person can be a Poet, or can even enjoy Poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind."
Some moralists hold that a person has no right to do what he pleases with his own life. I think that is a mistake. My opinion is that it is not only every man's right, but his duty to make the most he can of his life; and in that opinion I am borne out by a protemporary, Mr Tristram Shandy, who says that "the sweat of a man's brows and the exudations of a man's brains are as much a man's own property as the breeches upon his backside;" and as my life has hitherto been devoted to mercantile pursuits, I am determined now to make it a mercantile commodity.
From the Critics—for this great work is sure to be criticised—I ask no favour, and I expect none. I defy them all—they may depend upon it, that a man of my literary talent and commercial experience, will not be
"Snuffed out by an article."
