This page has been validated.
TO THE
PUBLISHER OF QUEEN MAB.
You have probably thought yourself conferring a benefit on the literary world, by the re-publication of Queen Mab. I say the literary world; for the splendid edition you have published, plainly indicates you did not intend to circulate it among those whom a certain portion of the press would call the "rabble readers. I do not dispute your motives; and I can readily agree that the glittering, though frequently illusive, beauties of the poem deserve preservation. As far as he wages war against positive errors of religion, and government, it is not my purpose to endeavour to confute his principles; but since he attacks an institution which I conceive to be the bond of the social union, I cannot allow the opportunity to pass without entering a decided protest against his anti-matrimonial hypothesis. He will have other, and abler opponents, on other topics;
