n times, it may
with propriety be closed at the era of this distinguished event. From
the literature of other ages and countries, proofs equally cogent might
have been adduced, that the opinions announced in the former part of
this Essay are founded upon truth. It was not an agreeable office, nor a
prudent undertaking, to declare them; but their importance seemed to
render it a duty. It may still be asked, where lies the particular
relation of what has been said to these Volumes?--The question will be
easily answered by the discerning Reader who is old enough to remember
the taste that prevailed when some of these poems were first published,
seventeen years ago; who has also observed to what degree the poetry of
this Island has since that period been coloured by them; and who is
further aware of the unremitting hostility with which, upon some
principle or other, they have each and all been opposed. A sketch of my
own notion of the constitution of Fame has been given; and, as far as
concerns myself, I have cause to be satisfied. The love, the admiration,
the indifference, the slight, the aversion, and even the contempt, with
which these Poems have been received, knowing, as I do, the source
within my own mind, from which they have proceeded, and the labour and
pains, which, when labour and pains appeared needful, have been bestowed
upon them, must all, if I think consistently, be received as pledges and
tokens, bearing the same general impression, though widely different in
value;--they are all proofs that for the present time I have not
laboured in vain; and afford assurances, more or less authentic, that
the products of my industry will endure.

If there be one conclusion more forcibly pressed upon us than another by
the review which has been given of the fortunes and fate of poetical
Works, it is this,--that every author, as far as he is great and at the
same time _original_, has had the task of _creating_ the taste by which
he is to be enjoyed; so has it been, so will it continue to be. This
remark was long since made to me by the philosophical Friend for the
separation of whose poems from my own I have previously expressed my
regret. The predecessors of an original Genius of a high order will have
smoothed the way for all that he has in common with them;--and much he
will have in common; but, for what is peculiarly his own, he will be
called upon to clear and often to shape his own road:--he will be in the
condition