PLEASURES OF MELANCHOLY

AND

OTHER POEMS.

BY ROBERT FARMER.

"There is at least one advantage in the poetical inclination, that it is an
incentive to philanthropy. There is a certain poetic ground on which a
man cannot tread without feelings that enlarge the heart: the causes of
human depravity vanish before the enthusiasm he professes; and many who
are not able to reach the Parnassian heights, may yet approach so near as
to be bettered by the air of the climate."-MACKENZIE.

REEVE, LIBRARY, LEAMINGTON; BRODIE & CO., SALISBURY.

1847.

DEDICATION.

WHILE these Poems live, may the memory of a good Mother (who, in the days of childhood and innocence, taught her children the value, the importance, the blessing, and the happiness of a religious life) live with. them.

PREFACE.

PHILOSOPHERS have divested themselves of their natural apathy, and Poets have risen above themselves in descanting on the Pleasures of Melancholy.

There is no mind so gross, no understanding so uncultivated, as to be incapable, at certain moments, and amid certain combinations, of feel ing that sublime influence upon the spirits which steals the soul from the petty anxieties of the world,

"And fits it to hold converse with the gods."