Excerpt from The North American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 9 All this however only shows that it is no wonder, and no mark of extraordinary genius, for an untaught man to Write so as not to be detected in his deficiency, while his are those of the imagination; and that if he avoid ground, he may without very uncommon talent reach the common standard of the times. But it is very rare that one without education has done more than this in poetry. Those g1eat geniuses who have outstripped the imagination of their age, and left models for those who come after them, have rarely burst out from obscurity and ignorance. The greatest name in English, indeed in any poetry, .is found in no school or university; but he is an exception, not an example: Burns follows next to him, but at what a distance! And what still more distant warblings lessen on the ear from the many ohson1e poets that have been brought forward 1n England as curiosities, and, for aught we know 'of them, are still living in disappointment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.