on a belief, that the time is approaching when the evil
will be systematically opposed, by men of greater powers, and with far
more distinguished success.

Having dwelt thus long on the subjects and aim of these Poems, I shall
request the Reader's permission to apprise him of a few circumstances
relating to their _style_, in order, among other reasons, that he may
not censure me for not having performed what I never attempted. The
Reader will find that personifications of abstract ideas rarely occur in
these volumes; and are utterly rejected, as an ordinary device to
elevate the style, and raise it above prose. My purpose was to imitate,
and, as far as is possible, to adopt the very language of men; and
assuredly such personifications do not make any natural or regular part
of that language. They are, indeed, a figure of speech occasionally
prompted by passion, and I have made use of them as such; but have
endeavoured utterly to reject them as a mechanical device of style, or
as a family language which Writers in metre seem to lay claim to by
prescription. I have wished to keep the Reader in the company of flesh
and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him. Others who
pursue a different track will interest him likewise; I do not interfere
with their claim, but wish to prefer a claim of my own. There will also
be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic
diction; as much pains has been taken to avoid it as is ordinarily taken
to produce it; this has been done for the reason already alleged, to
bring my language near to the language of men; and further, because the
pleasure which I have proposed to myself to impart, is of a kind very
different from that which is supposed by many persons to be the proper
object of poetry. Without being culpably particular, I do not know how
to give my Reader a more exact notion of the style in which it was my
wish and intention to write, than by informing him that I have at all
times endeavoured to look steadily at my subject; consequently, there is
I hope in these Poems little falsehood of description, and my ideas are
expressed in language fitted to their respective importance. Something
must have been gained by this practice, as it is friendly to one
property of all good poetry, namely, good sense: but it has necessarily
cut me off from a large portion of phrases and figures of speech which
from father to son have long been regarded as the common inheri