Excerpt from Original Poems: Written in Hours of Leisure Many of you are aware that, about three years ago, I published a volume of Poems, containing 134 pages. Those Po'ems were on various sub jects, and much in the style of the present ones. I promised, in my address to you in that volume, that should the work meet with success, I would increase it's size; but, as a great number of that edition has been disposed of amongst you, it would be useless for you to purchase the same work over again; therefore, I shall publish my Poems in Small parts, like the present, and, whenever I have manuscript sufficient to make up about seventy pages, I shall publish it, as 1 have had ample proofs of your being satisfied with the larger volume. I do not write for a living nor profit, but entirely for my own amusement. I have never yet put any of my books into the hands of a publisher, nor would I do so until I had tried the opinions of my friends on a small scale. I moreover beg to assure you, that any subject you may read in my writings is purely original, and never in print before. I have neither copied nor imitated any person's subject, manner, or style. What I write, whether censurable or praiseworthy, is purely my own; and should I fail in pleasing you, I shall be more deserving your pity than your censure, - since I have made the attempt, but na ture withheld her hand. I 'give this little work the title of having been written in hours of leisure. Since man's life is divided into different portions of time, such as labour or business, sleep, devotion, pleasure, &c., still there will be some odd hours and shreds of time that will not work into any of the above por tions, - these I call hours of leisure; and, that no vacuum may form itself in any space of our lives, we should employ those hours in some innocent pursuit, such as would amuse ourselves and prove beneficial to others. It is in those hours we should practise and endeavour to display the abilities heaven has bestowed on our noble nature;-it is in those hours of leisure that I have penned up wards of 200 pages of those innocent, and, I hope, some way amusing Poems. Neither the ambition of fame nor the hope of gain has induced me to write; it is the pure inclination of my soul that bids me do so. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.