I entertain hope from the indul­gence of the liberal-minded of just taste, and the explorers of literature endowed with generous sentiments, whose exalted souls are imbued with the kindly influence and tempera­ture of impartiality, and who have attained, from the courts of almighty and divine purity, the pow­ers of discrimination—That when roaming with their sight along the windings of this pleasure-garden of eloquence, if perchance their eyes should be gratified by a view of the virgin brides of the recesses of beauty——They will, at the incitation of their innate liberality, shut their eyes to venial imperfections, and look only upon the abundance of their excellencies.

If perchance a fault should be observed, or a mistake appear, in consonance with their generous feel­ings, let them amend it; and not, like the severe of grovelling souls, charge the steed of criticism on the plains of exposure, as the tiger pur­sues the affrighted deer; nor curvet exultingly in the confined space of general remark, and too harsh notice of trifling errors. Since it is evident, that the artist of human skill, the edicts for the bounds of his genius being justly inscribed with this superscription, “He has created Man imperfect,”* cannot with the aid of the pen, which is but a weak reed, sketch a portrait free from error or imperfection.

Leaving, however, every other point, the dependants on the frag­ments of the maedah* of eloquence, and the remnant-receivers of the simmaut* of composition well know, what intense thought they are obliged to exercise in connecting two epithets, alike in termination, and according in sense and meaning. The author, until he hath plunged an hundred soul-wasting daggers into his heart, and with the adamant of reflection torn his breast to pieces, cannot obtain the sun-resplendent ruby of expression worthy the accep­tance of the difficulty-approving judges of composition; nor, till he hath dived a thousand times into the boundless ocean of fancy, will the princely pearl of justly-expressive terms, fit for the approval of the sublime minds of the sovereigns of the regions of eloquence, fall into his hands.

Although these trifling effusions, which have been collected in the vapours of the futile imagination of this humble composer for the boards of the masters of eloquence and learning, are not worth the trouble of so much discussion; yet my heart trembles like the reed at cer­tain unshaven enemies* of justice, who, from want of taste, make criticism a disguise for ignorance. They know no distinction between the eye of a needle or the notch of an arrow, nor between the arrow and the planet Mercury.*

Seeking, therefore, an asylum under the beneficent shade of the virtuous, the pure, and impartial, of true judgment, who having explored the heights and depths of composition with the steps of adequate consideration, have reached the criterion of true taste——And making the disclosure of this intro­duction the medium of explaining my OBJECT—viz. their favourable opinion and correction of my mis­takes,——I hope, that at the insti­gation of their liberal natures they will not withhold their indulgence, but commemorate me with a prayer (Fateah*) to attain which was my grand motive for compiling these trifles.*