TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
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sav a little even where I have much to communicate, for having lately coi1ceiYed the exquisite idea of treating the Town, to 11 few Jancifu l lucubrations, it may not. be altogether improper to offer some remarks in the fonu of a PROSPECTUS but a kind of moon-struck-du lne!-!- pervndes my sensl's, nncl such is tl;e present powrty of my ge1~ius t_hat I nm at a stnncl for something to sny in the verry sucr.eeclmg- ]me. But induloent reader my lethnr•Ty is owina to some casual circumstance, and must"not be 11ttribi1ted to ~iny intdl~ctual defect, a11cl I hope ~-ou will have the liberality to believe the truth of what I now tell you, That l really pos~ess a dareing mind, lofty conceptions & unbounde<l wit, and at any other time in the world would be fully compctant to write a prospectus high, grand & exnulted which would rol_l 1lmrn_ the gutter of time to the latest posterity and be peruf;ed with 11!-light, when the works of Spencer and Shakspeare and :Milto11 shall be no longer read but lie mouldering in some obscure corner with the worm- eaten lumber of a dustv Book case-- It is an establi:.:hed custom with all the accomplished and choise wits of the present age, on what subject soever they may write, to open their productions with a long string (as it is commonally termed) of preliminary obserrntion, and who ever proceeds in wilful violation of this fashionable rule must expect as the poet says to be "damned to everlasting fame" It will therefore be presumrd that I in adhereance to it will now proceed to fill a few pages with encomiastic remarks on the utility, nmu~ement &.C &C of periodical works, which however I am determined not to clo, but shall throw myself upon the mercy of the c:riticks, and humbly beg their forgiYeness for my nonconformity. I might take a retrospection of the world from the foundation of let- ten; and trace the rise, progress & termination of all such pr0tl uctions up to the present period, interlarding my account with a few sensible comments and critical animad\"ersions, and therby not only spin out my prospectus to a tolerable respectable length, hut would have an ample opportunity of displaying the profundity of my erudition, but I am well aware that such a coun;e would be irksome to my readers and an unpardonahle intrusion upon their patience. I have howe,·er another cogent objection wliich i~ simply thi,-, that my strength does 11ot lie in writing prefatory & introrluctor~• remarks aud such is the honest frankness of my nature that I am constrained to confesf- that I hare not so good a talent at this species of composition as my happ_v friend Olirer Oold~mith, This though should not rletract too much from my reputation a~ a modern fine writer, for although I am some- thing deficient in this particular, I am equally excellent -in some other, for when I once get fairly under sail, I can proceell with extreordinary ease to myself and to the infinite amui,ement of m_r readers, and such indeed is my happy fluency, that I am frequently ahle to get through a whole sentence and a half without stoppin(T more than a dozen time:;.- But the truth is simply thi~, that 1 am 1let~mi11e1l in my prospectus, and in all my future effu,;ions, not io eonform to am· ~tmlierl rule~ of com- position, whether fa ~hionable or unfa~hionalile, · not cn!n to the Ari s- 1otolian laws them~eh-e~, for all nrP arhitrarr aml enlculated onlv to hamper genius. The immortal 8hnkspear 0 "spur11ed their bounded reign" 1111d whilst the regular penned lahours of others are 1laily dis- appearin~ like ;·ex<'elations in the cwnin!! mHI no man !'ces them
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