'Twere well with most, if books that could engage COWPER. PREFACE has been pronounced to be, for the most part, an impertinence; since a good book does not require, and a bad book does not deserve, one. Every rule, however, has its exceptions; and it is necessary to explain the manner in which the following verses became a part of the present work. Several years ago the writer of them prefixed, to a volume of his own, some verses inscribed to a friend and relative, whose works for the rising generation are extensively known, and deservedly esteemed, in which he made a passing allusion to Defoe, with other writers for children, whose volumes, in his early life, were standards in the juvenile library. An extract from this poem, forming stanzas 3, 4, and 5 of the verses now printed, having been given by Wilson in his Life of Defoe, the editor of these volumes being much struck with their beauty, requested of his kind friend the author to amplify them so as to form a full and appropriate introduction. The result has only proved that neither the flowing ease of the writer nor his willingness to oblige were unjustly anticipated. For the edition now submitted to the public little need be said. No apology can be requisite for any attempt to present to readers of every age and rank a book confessedly at the very head of its class, in a more generally attractive form than it has ever before been offered. The new set of illustrations by which it is embellished, being above one-third more in number than the celebrated series by the admirable Stothard, consequently |