VARIATIONS IN THE AUTHOR'S MANUSCRIPT PREFACE.
After the words 'severely remarked on,' p. 2, l. 41, it followed
thus--For my part, I confess, had I seen things in this view at first,
the public had never been troubled either with my writings, or with this
apology for them. I am sensible how difficult it is to speak of one's
self with decency: but when a man must speak of himself, the best way is
to speak truth of himself, or, he may depend upon it, others will do it
for him. I'll therefore make this preface a general confession of all my
thoughts of my own poetry, resolving with the same freedom to expose
myself, as it is in the power of any other to expose them. In the first
place, I thank God and nature that I was born with a love to poetry; for
nothing more conduces to fill up all the intervals of our time, or, if
rightly used, to make the whole course of life entertaining: _Cantantes
licet usque_ (_minus via laedet_). 'Tis a vast happiness to possess the
pleasures of the head, the only pleasures in which a man is sufficient
to himself, and the only part of him which, to his satisfaction, he can
employ all day long. The Muses are _amicae omnium horarum_; and, like
our gay acquaintance, the best company in the world as long as one
expects no real service from them. I confess there was a time when I was
in love with myself, and my first productions were the children of
Self-Love upon Innocence.
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