I must now take leave of my honoured wards, of whom I confess that my commendations are sincerer than my censures, which last were made the rather to forestall the nibblings of others, than to enforce objections of my own.—I would fain intreat still once again for a sober and candid examination of my favourites, and I cannot do this better than by calling to the "gentle reader's" memory the valuable sentiment of Horace, as expanded by the vigorous Dryden—"True judgment in poetry, like that in painting, takes a view of the whole together, whether it be good or not; and when the beauties are more than the faults, concludes for the poet against the little judge."
Nov. 8. 1820.
This Preface has waited above a month, in expectation that the real Editor of the "Select Poets" would have made some apology to his accustomed readers for appointing a journeyman to that work, which would have been most becomingly performed by himself. But the same
