ENTERED, according to act of Congress, in the year 1840, by JoHN D. SPALDING, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. TO THE PRESIDENTS, PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, AND TO THE PRINCIPALS, INSTRUCTERS AND PUPILS OF ACADEMIES AND CLASSICAL SCHOOLS, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS INSCRIBED; THAT IT MAY FURNISH A MOTIVE, TO EXCITE THE YOUTH OF THIS COUNTRY, NOT ONLY TO THE DILIGENT AND ACCURATE STUDY, BUT ALSO TO THE THOROUGH ACQUISITION OF THE DEAD LANGUAGES; THE ATTAINMENT OF WHICH HAS, OF LATE YEARS, BECOME UNPOPULAR WITH A LARGE PORTION OF OUR COUNTRYMEN, TO THE GREAT LOSS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE; AND THE SERIOUS INJURY OF THE INTERESTS OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. PREFACE. The most of the following poems were written between eighty and ninety years ago; and are the production of a respectable Physician, who died near the close of the last century. His manuscripts, which are voluminous, and on various subjects, both literary and scientifick, have remained in the hands of his family, to the present time; and the following selection has been made, merely as a specimen of poetick talent and literary acquirements. The fate of the residue will depend on the reception, with which this volume meets, from the American publick. The Author was a native of the State of New-York. He was educated at one of the oldest Colleges in this country, at which, he graduated at a very early age, and of which, he was afterwards an officer. After completing his professional studies and spending several years in the practice of medicine; with the view of qualifying himself for more extensive usefulness in his profession, he voluntarily relinquished a lucrative practice, and the endearments of home, and embarked for Europe. In the course of the voyage, the packet in which he sailed was attacked by a French privateer, and our author was slightly wounded. He, however, arrived in safety, and remained nearly three years abroad, not lounging about the cities, or flying from kingdom to king. dom, merely to gratify an idle curiosity, or to make a boast of what he had seen and where he had been; but in the diligent prosecution of the object, for which he had left his native land and the home of his fond parents, of whom he was then their only surviving child. A large portion of his time was spent on the continent: and at one of the oldest universities, he received the degree of M. D. after undergoing a thorough examination, as his Diploma certifies, "per universam Medicinam ;" and delivering a Latin dissertation on an assigned Thesis; and defending the same, "prompte adversus Professorum opponentium argumenta objectionesque;" in compliance with the regulations of the Institution. He also resided several months in the city of London, where he attended a course of Anatomical Lectures, and enjoyed the privileges of one of the publick Hospitals. The associations, in which he was then placed, occasioned some of the most severe satires that ever proceeded from his pen. |