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COMPILED FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS, AND ARRANGED UNDER
APPROPRIATE HEADS.

BY

JOHN T. WATSON, M.D.

THE WORLD IS FULL OF POETRY. THE AIR
IS LIVING WITH ITS SPIRIT; AND THE WAVES
DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF ITS MELODIES,
AND SPARKLE IN ITS BRIGHTNESS.

PERCIVAL.

PHILADELPHIA:

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON.

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by

JOHN T. WATSON. M.D.,

in the clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania.

.

то

MRS. AMELIA B. WELBY,

OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY,

THIS WORK

Is most Respectfully Xnscribed

AS

A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION

TO ONE OF THE BEST POETS

OF

OUR COUNTRY.

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PREFACE.

In this book-making age, various are the causes which have induced men to become authors. With some, chill Penury has been the only stimulus with others, Ambition, that spur to great and noble deeds as well as vices, has been the chief excitant. Some have been influenced by true Benevolence, and a sincere wish to ameliorate the condition of mankind; while others have written to gratify rapacious Avarice or fell Revenge. Science, with its occult truths, and the wonderful and gratifying disclosures it makes to its followers, has produced many authors; and another and quite numerous class has been generated by pure Ennui-an intolerable weariness at having nothing to do. None of these potent causes has exercised much influence in the conception and execution of this Work: it may be said to have been the result of mere accident-an agent not less observable in many of the actions of men than those above enumerated. The task of making the following collection was commenced four or five years ago, but without any view to publication; and it was not until the pages had accumulated so as to assume somewhat of a booklike appearance, that the resolution to print them was adopted: a resolution which has been considerably influenced and encouraged by the consideration, that there is a necessity and a demand for such a book at this time.

To the editor, the author, and the public speaker, it is believed that a great convenience will hereby be afforded; for nothing adorns a composition or a speech more than appropriate quotations — endorsing, as it were, our own sentiments with the sanction of other minds-unless the habit of quoting is too often indulged, when it degenerates into pedantry, and becomes unpleasing. It is hoped, too, that the general reader, at least every lover of Poetry, will here find much to instruct and amuse. And who, that has feeling, is not a lover of Poetry? Who can listen to "the dear, dear witchery of song," nor feel that it is the very language of Nature herself? Coming as it does from the heart, it appeals directly to the hearts of others, and seems to take the fancy and the feelings captive unawares. So universal is its influence, and so comprehensive its scope, that there is scarcely a theme within the range of the imagination, from the sublime conceptions of Milton and Dante to the ridiculous and common-place subjects of Butler's verse, which may not be appropriately sung "in liquid lines mellifluously bland."

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