Excerpt from The Universal Songster, Or, Museum of Mirth, Vol. 3: Forming the Most Complete, Extensive, and Valuable Collection of Ancient and Modern Songs in the English Language: With a Copious and Classified Index, Which Will, Under Its Various Heads, Refer the Reader to the Following Description of Song, Viz, , Ancie

The rapid and extensive sale, accorded by an indulgent public to the Universal Songster, prompts the compiler of these pages to offer his most grateful acknowledgements to the patrons of lyric poetry and harmony on the completion of this third volume of his undertaking. As the provider of an ample feast endeavours to store his banquet with viands suited to every taste, it is confidently hoped that some effusions have been found calculated to gratify the most dainty or fastidious appetite. The love-stricken heart, - the mind attuned to moody melancholy, - the lofty spirit panting for naval 01 military glory, - the wit, - the bon vivant, the votary of Bacchanalian mirth, as well as the advocate for broad humour, fun, and gig, - all may alike find food to satisfy desire, though he stood in need of a repast even more profuse than that prepared by an Heliogabalus. In short, no source has been neglected for the supply of variety of matter, nor any pains spared in its selection, a toil amply compensated by the liberal patronage enjoyed, affording the most convincing testimony of having acquired favour. In order, therefore, to support that credit so firmly established, it is our intention to suspend, for a time, the continuance of The Museum of Mirth, until a sufficient store of novelty shall have appeared to create additional zest, as a redundancy of old or hacknied effusions might tend to blunt the keen edge of appetite, and thereby prove detrimental to the volumes already extant.

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