JAN 23 1912 LIBRARY Gift of ENTERED, ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1867, BY IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. DAVIES AND KENT, Electrotypers and Stereotypers, 183 WILLIAM ST., N. Y. Preface. OOKED at from a phrenological stand-point, this Poem exhibits rare beauties not seen, or, rather, not fully appreciated, by other eyes. Rightly interpreted, no objection can rest against its scientific or theological bearings. Skeptics and bigots are alike narrow-minded, and quarrel with that which they do not, or will not, comprehend. It is an easy matter for poets and philosophers to furnish ideas, but not so easy to furnish brains with minds to understand them. It may be proper to observe, that some passages in the "Essay on Man" having been unjustly suspected of a tendency toward fate and naturalism, the author composed “A Universal Prayer" as the sum of all, to show that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety; that the First Cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the universe as the Creator of it; and that by submission to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but a resting in a religious acquiescence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the Lord's Prayer, which of all others best deserves the title prefixed to this paraphrase. S. R. WELLS. |