PREFACE |
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WHETHER Authors have some misgiving of the intrinsic value of their productions, and their consequent claim to public attention and patronage, and feel it necessary therefore to bespeak a favorable sentence on trial; or whether the thing is done merely to swell the book, I | 5 | |
cannot well say; but somehow, on taking up a new book, a preface is the first thing we look for; and I cannot see why I should be out of fashion in this respect. Mine shall not be very lengthy however. Instead (as is usually done by poets) of telling a long story about my not having had | 10 | |
an opportunity of receiving a classical, or any other education, and thus entreating the reader to be blind to my faults, I will only just tell him, that I am as fully aware as he is that this is all fudge, and a little beneath my dignity. I leave these matters to his own discrimination: if he is fit | 15 | |
to judge, he will judge of them by "internal
evidence"; and, if he buy my book, and do not prevent
others from doing likewise, his decision is of consequence to me. |
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circumstances of the Country, and are expected to be
acceptable to the bulk of the young people of Upper Canada, for whose
amusement they are especially intended. |
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composed since about Christmas last, I not being aware, until then, that I possessed any of the germs of the Poet; and that there is more truth in what I hope is about to be read, than those not conversant with the political history of the working classes in England for the last fifteen | 30 | |
years may be inclined to suppose. Whether I shall try my hand at the craft again, I am not quite certain: that depends on the manner in which this attempt shall be received by—THE PAYMASTER. JOHN NEWTON. |
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ST. ANN’S, NELSON | } | |
MARCH 14TH, 1846. | ||
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