To the same.-Milestown, Philadelphia county, Aug. 408 To the same.-Saturday, January 4, 1806, To his excellency Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.-Kingsessing, February 6, 1806, PREFACE: INCLUDING WILSON'S PREFACE AND DEDICATION, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT EDITIONS OF HIS POEMS. Ir is necessary, before mentioning the features that distinguish the present edition of Wilson's Poems from the former ones, to give some account of the previous editions of his poetical works. The first edition was published in the autumn of 1790, in the form of a handsome octavo volume of three hundred pages, entitled "Poems by Alexander Wilson, Paisley: printed by John Neilson, for the author." It had for a frontispiece a miserablydesigned and badly-executed copperplate engraving, representing the scene in "Hardyknute," where the "wounded knight" exclaims to that venerable warrior "Kind, generous chieftain! your intent pursue; As a The number of copies thrown off was seven hundred; but the author, by his own exertions, was unable to dispose of more than two hundred. The last twenty-seven pages were occupied with a prose "Journal," in which he narrates, in his usually graphic manner, his adventures when in quest of subscribers. preface, Wilson considered the following suitable :"Through life, what miseries, cares, and disappointments daily occur to those on whom fortune seems to look unpropitious! Hours with them are days, months seem years; and time steals as sluggishly onward as if he delighted in our griefs, and wished to spin out our miserable existence. In such sickening circumstances, the mind eagerly engages in any pursuit that can communicate one gleam of joy, however transient-one prospect of pleasure, however remote. An attempt to beguile some of those unhappy moments, joined to an irresistible love of poetry, gave being to the greatest number of pieces that compose the following collection. And, as the intention of every publication should be to instruct or entertain, or both, I fondly hope that, having endeavoured to blend the two together, to adorn them with the colouring of poetry, and enliven them with humour and fancy, they may not be altogether unacceptable. "Poetry, notwithstanding those numerous and formidable volumes that now march through the land, is, in my opinion, long since on the decline; and instead of its noble sentiments, sprightly wit, and astonishing imagery, we are of late tormented with the mere tinkling of childish rhymes. Should this miscellany be deservedly included among those insipid lumps, I shall drop my pen with a sigh, and resign the wished-for laurels to some more fortunate adventurer. Time, but neither the ap O plause of fools nor the snarling of a Zoilus, will fix the fate of these little pieces, the merits of which, their immediate relapse into oblivion, or their honourable existence two hundred years hence, shall determine. However, as I have not a doubt but that either from my own deficiencies, from envy, or the ignorant affectation of others, I may have enemies enough to encounter, I shall here address two species of my most formidable antagonists, of whom a certain train of stiff, upright, formal, square and rule critics shall have the preference. "Methinks I see one of these dogmatic pedants poring over this book, wrying his mouth with every revolving leaf-ever and anon muttering to himself the expressive monosyllable, 'stuff!' Ten thousand unpardonable faults, that escape even the judicious, his penetrating eye discovers. 'See! here an apostrophe is omitted. What a transposition of grammar!-This expression should and ought to have been, according to all just and equitable rules of grammar, enclosed, confined, or put between two parenthesis.' The pedant possessed of such a narrow soul, may be justly likened to another of his kind, inspecting through a microscope the shining surface of a needle; to every other eye it glitters smooth and polished, but to his seems nothing else than a coarse, rugged piece of deformity. Not that I would here be understood to depreciate that useful branch of learning, or justify a loose incorrect mode of writing: far from it. But let those, whose deepest observations and most powerful objections consist of misplaced commas, superfluous conjunctions, unnecessary repetitions, and such truly important points -I say, let them, in the midst of their exclamations, consider how little I wrong them, and how much they are indebted to my very faults. Had I never deviated from their mathematical lines, how many glorious opportunities would they have lost of displaying to the world the excellence of that deep erudition which they certainly possess. Let me, however, seriously ask them-would they, for the misplacing of one dish at table, lose the enjoyment of their dinner? If not, never let the unfortunate slip of a grammatical error prejudice them against a whole piece; and let them be content, if in one instance I have kept to their rules; for, in plain English, allow me to say, them I never did intend to please, and their applause I would not hesitate to consider so much ridicule. "As for those, whose judgment, knowledge, taste, and impartiality, justly entitle them to the appellation of critics,-to you with diffidence, I submit the following pieces. To defy you, would be, no doubt, to arouse the indignant lion, and seal my own destruction. Yet think not that I shall here abjectly kneelbeseech your gracious clemency-profess my own insignificancy -and tremble for your sentence. No; all I request from you or the world is simply this: peruse with impartiality the following pages, give merit its praise where you find it, and pity rather than exult with savage joy over those frailties to which every mortal is liable,-ever generously considering, that 'to err is human, to forgive, divine.'" "Paisley, July 22, 1790." The second edition, considerably improved, made its appearance in the succeeding year. The title-page was somewhat different from that of its predecessor, and stood as follows:"Poems, Humorous, Satirical, and Serious, by Alexander Wilson. Edinburgh: printed for the author, and sold by P. Hill, 1791." This edition is greatly different from the first; the following ten pieces, which appeared in the first, were now judiciously omitted:-" Address to Calder Banks," "Epistle to a Brother Pedlar," "The Cruelty of Revenge," "Auchtertool," "Epitaph on Auld Janet," "Second Epistle to Mr. William Mitchell," "To the Curious," "Third Epistle to Mr. William Mitchell," "Verses to a Stationer,” and an "Ode," beginning "Loud roaring winter now is o'er." Substituted for these were the following poems, greatly superior in merit :-" Ode for the birth-day of our immortal Scottish poet," " Elegy," "Eppie and the Deil," "To the Hon. William M'Dowal," "Epigram," beginning, "I asked a poor favourite of Phoebus t'other night," "Despondence," " Ossian's Lament," "The Laurel Disputed," and "Elegy addressed to a Young Lady." This great change was effected by merely cancelling a number of pages of the remaining five hundred unsold copies of the first edition, and substituting newly printed pages of corresponding numbers. He appears to have taken considerable pains, and had resource to a curious shift to conceal from the public this melancholy evidence of the unsuccessful sale of his volume.On the last page of the work was the word "Finis," in large type; and to save the reprinting of this page-as he wished more pages added, and the word from being seen-he had impressed, by the hand, a stamp of a round pattern upon the top of this word, so as to obliterate and make it illegible. How far he succeeded in his intention, is not exactly known; but the acute observer, by examining page 300 of the "second edition," will still perceive stubborn "Finis" appearing enviously through the figure, as if in mockery of the poor author! The thirty-two pages added contained a continuation to his curious prose "Journal," describing the varied receptions he encountered from the subscribers to his first edition, when delivering their copies. He also added a new feature to the work, by having the following manly dedication : |