PREFACE. How many and how various are the prefaces which have been laid before the public! Expressed in very different words, formed in very contrary models; some in a whining strain appealing to the Reader's pity....others, breathing the bold language of impudence, or ludicrous insinuations of vanity. Yet, notwithstanding this difference in form and expression, they all centre in one particular point....no thinking mind will hesitate for a moment in deciding that point to be....the Reader's favour. Or my own inability to write a Preface, I am fully sensible and were it not in the present instance absolutely necessary, I should never have attempted such an undertaking. 1 feel that the public will expect something like an apology, for my temerity in obtruding my productions upon them. I will apologise...and (what may perhaps be singular) I will do it in the language of truth. LET those into whose hands this little volume may fall, first consider, that it was written by a man, who had not the advantage of a regular education....who never had much leisure to bestow upon literary pursuits....and whose feelings have been too frequently wrung by the hard hand of poverty. In the earlier part of my life, I often attempted to write in verse....but any of those juvenile productions which are at present in my possession, are so defective as not to be worthy of notice. The following pieces were chiefly composed while my hands were busily occupied at work. Possessing a mind which disdained to be fettered down to the dry study of a troublesome employment....I found poetry a sweet walk for the imagination. MANY of the following, especially those of a serious nature, have served to blunt the arrow of affliction, and lead my thoughts aside from the path of despair....if they have the same effect on any of my readers, I will think myself amply rewarded. MANY authors have given the request of friends as an excuse for publishing their works....and some would doubtless wish to insinuate, that their friends thought the world would be wronged, and disappointed, if they declined giving their literary labours publicity. My friends feigned no such qualms of conscience. They did not seem to think the world would suffer any material injury, if my poems should be withheld from it. Notwithstanding their extreme delicacy, I could perceive, that they hoped the publication would be attended with some profits, which might ameliorate my situation in life, and encourage me to greater exertions. FROM the Critical Reviewer I expect no mercy.... I do not ask it. No judge can be readier to condemn me, than I am to condemn myself. Fame, the Poet's dearest meed, which leads him through life, and teaches him to despise the painful asperities of the way, is a rich reward....but one which I have not the confidence to expect. In the midst of my fears and apprehensions, I have, in one instance, experienced a sincere gratification. All ranks and denominations of people have evinced the warmest disposition to encourage me. Even some of the most respectable Ladies and Gentlemen in the North of Ireland, have condescended to solicit others in their own sphere to become subscribers! It is a difficult task for me to restrain myself from pointing out some of their names....and thus publicly acknowledging my gratitude. Their delicacy, however, shall not be wounded....but while this bosom is warm with life, I will remember their unmerited favours.....and, I trust, will prove to the world that they have not, in me, patronised a man whose heart was dead to the impulse of gratitude. KIND and beneficent encouragers of obscure genius! may your lives never be embittered by misfortune!.... may happiness be the inmate of your bosoms!....and may posterity entertain for your námes, the same degree of esteem and admiration, which is felt by Your very grateful and obliged Humble Servant, ANDREW MKENZIE. 1 Dunover, October, 1810. SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES. A. Copies. 2 A. Allen, Esq. Dunover, 6 H. J. Adams, Rathfriland James Allen, Ballybuttle B. 2 Major Boyd, R. S. D. M. Wm. Anderson, ditto... 2 W. Brownrigg, Esq. do. |