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PREFACE.
The appeal of so young a Candidate for public favour as myself, must be made less to the candour, than to the kindness of my judges. Well aware that, like the fountain of youth of which we read in the Fairy Tales of the East, the bright springs of poetry may he drank but by few; and that the path we fondly deemed led to immortality, too often terminates in the waters of oblivion—I dare only intreat gentle visitings, for the alight plant thus adventured in open daylight; and look forward to its fate with fear, rather than with hope that it will blossom to maturity.
