PREFACE. THE following trifle, written some years ago, is offered with diffidence to the younger portion of the public. The notes on Hades may convey some information not to be obtained by them without labour; and may induce the reader to dive deeper into a subject that cannot fail to indemnify for the trouble taken in the pursuit. Dreams are composed of preconceived ideas often oddly put together, often with sudden and obscure changes, and as often with indefinite terminations. The Vision of Noös had its origin in a dream of that nature, which will account for its containing some of those peculiarities. In personifying some of the passions and affections of the mind, an attempt has been made to define them, and shew the relation they have to each other, and thus lead the tyro in metaphysics to watch the operations of his own mind, and to de tect the various influences that lure it from the paths of Justice and Charity. The writer is conscious of having exposed himself to the keen shafts of the Critic, but as the following pages are published without pretension, and cannot injure that part of the community for whose amusement they are intended, he leaves himself (not without apprehension) in their hands, since the taste of the present day is not favourable towards this kind of composition. |