Anonymous

“ One maxim of the exploded critics we still admit to be just; that the rules for writing in verse cannot be laid down by dint of previous reasoning, or, as the metaphysicians express it, a priori, but must be drawn from poems, which have been crowned with the greatest success, and which, therefore, we conclude to be the best. Thus, Aristotle, in the first art of poetry that was ever written, derives his maxims from the works of Homer ”

“ Waving therefore all claim to the invention of the new poetic art, I merely take to myself the credit of collecting and methodizing the principles and maxims, which lie scattered here and there throughout the numerous successful poems of the present remarkable æra.
As in the schools of our universities every sentiment is uttered in a learned language, so, it is well known, that, in the school of the ancient poets, it was customary to use only the language of verse, even upon prosaic subjects. ”

“ Hence it becomes very desirable, that a new set of rules should be arranged, suited to the improvements and corrected taste of the present day; in order that they, whose genius or inclination leads them to cultivate poetry, may not only enjoy the advantage of having models to imitate, in the numerous poets by which the age is distinguished, but may also have a kind of manual, to which they may easily refer in cases of doubt and difficulty. ”