a manner as to satisfy his own mind, he should
have preferred the natural order of publication, and have given that to
the world first; but, as the second division of the Work was designed to
refer more to passing events, and to an existing state of things, than
the others were meant to do, more continuous exertion was naturally
bestowed upon it, and greater progress made here than in the rest of the
poem; and as this part does not depend upon the preceding, to a degree
which will materially injure its own peculiar interest, the Author,
complying with the earnest entreaties of some valued Friends, presents
the following pages to the Public.

It may be proper to state whence the poem, of which 'The Excursion' is a
part, derives its Title of THE RECLUSE.-Several years ago, when the
Author retired to his native mountains, with the hope of being enabled
to construct a literary Work that might live, it was a reasonable thing
that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far Nature
and Education had qualified him for such employment. As subsidiary to
this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse, the origin and
progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them. That
Work, addressed to a dear Friend, most distinguished for his knowledge
and genius, and to whom the Author's Intellect is deeply indebted, has
been long finished; and the result of the investigation which gave rise
to it was a determination to compose a philosophical poem, containing
views of Man, Nature, and Society; and to be entitled, 'The Recluse;' as
having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet
living in retirement.--The preparatory poem is biographical, and
conducts the history of the Author's mind to the point when he was
emboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for
entering upon the arduous labour which he had proposed to himself: and
the two Works have the same kind of relation to each other, if he may so
express himself, as the ante-chapel has to the body of a gothic church.
Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor
Pieces, which have been long before the Public, when they shall be
properly arranged, will be found by the attentive Reader to have such
connection with the main Work as may give them claim to be likened to
the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily
included in those edifices.

The Author would not have deemed