Excerpt from The Rural Muse This little work here presented to the public may properly be considered as a supplement to one published eight years since, under the title of Rural Minstrelsy, as the main features of the two bear to each other a strong resemblance. It will doubtless be thought by many that this little volume is too egotistic; that the writer parades himself and his troubles too prominently before his readers, and that the sombre passage? which so frequently occur, imply a want of resignation to the divine will of the great Disposer of human events. The writer admits that many of the pieces contained in the present work were written in seasons of great despondency, and are, perhaps, too faithful transcripts of his feelings at such times to be interesting to some into whose hands his book may chance to fall; and yet not a few of those same pieces may strike a responsive chord in the bosoms of some who, like himself, have been tried in the furnace of affliction. But whatever of tender feeling or sympathy these may experience, as the private troubles of an individual seldom concern the public, so by the public they will seldom be regarded with interest; and perhaps it would have been better had those portions of the work which seem to be the offspring of a complaining and desponding spirit been of less frequent occurrence, or suppressed altogether. With much diffidence, and many misgivings, the author sends out into the world his unpretending little book, hoping that a generous public will throw the broad mantle of their charity over its numerous imperfections. 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.