* * * * *
As far as the seventy-fourth page, these Poems have been printed about
two years; during which many things happened likely to prevent their
ever appearing. The time, however, is now come, and I have to-day found
the remainder, up to where the lines end with
"Its unpolluted birthright."
On reading the whole over, they struck me with much surprise, as they
appear in a singular manner prophetic. I wrote them with a general, and
somewhat undefined view; and they now take the aspect of speaking on
what has since happened to myself--a long seclusion, during which I was
bereft of the common means of study, having given rise to one that has
turned out far more important than I at first imagined, and which I have
continued since, to the exclusion of every other pursuit.
_Stonkam, May 10th_, 1818.
Vignettes.