Excerpt from Galileo and Other Poems

To my friends, in particular, for whose perusal this volume is chiefly intended, and to those of the public into whose hands it may chance to fall, a few introductory words may not be inappropriate.

The production of these pieces was undertaken, not in any sense with a view to bookmaking, but simply to gratify a youthful inclination in the direction of versification, and finding, by repeated experiment, that I could spin a line with tolerable facility, I afterwards, in the intervals of active life, continued the diversion, until it resulted in the somewhat variegated fabric which is here, in part, presented. The subjects chosen, at first, being generally such occasions, either in my own experience, or that of others, as furnished the suggestion of a sentiment, or afforded an opportunity of embodying the characteristics of some favorite author. Should the discriminatting reader, therefore, discover in some of the earlier pieces a decided flavor of imitation, let him not be offended, but reflect that where no originality is designed, the absence of it is no cause for disparagement.

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