Page:Byron - Hours of idleness. A series of poems original and translated, by George Gordon Lord Byron a minor, 1807.djvu/17

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[ ix ]

or the honour of a posthumous page in "The Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors," a work to which the Peerage is under infinite obligations, inasmuch as many names of considerable length, sound, and antiquity, are thereby rescued from the obscurity, which unluckily overshadows several voluminous production of their illustrious bearers.

With slight hopes, and some fears, I publish this first, and last attempt. To the dictates of young ambition, may be ascribed many actions more criminal, and equally absurd. To a few of my own age, the contents may afford amusement, I trust, they will, at least, be found harmless. It is highly improbable, from my situation, and pursuits hereafter, that I should ever obtrude myself a second time on the Public; nor even, in the very doubtful event of present indulgence, shall I be tempted to commit a future trespass of the same nature. The opinion of Dr. Johnson on the Poems of a noble relation of mine,[1], "That when



  1. The Earl of Carlisle, whose works have long received the