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PREFACE.
nody or Sonnet is almost as absurd as to dislike a circle for being round. Why then write Sonnets or Monodies? Because they give me pleasure when perhaps nothing else could. After the more violent emotions of Sorrow, the mind demands solace and can find it in employment alone; but full of its late sufferings it can endure no employment not connected with those sufferings. Forcibly to turn away our attention to other subjects is a painful and in general an unavailing effort.
"But O how grateful to a wounded heart
The tale of misery to impart;
From others eyes bid artless sorrows flow
And raise esteem upon the base of woe!"
