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

able to reach the Parnassian heights, may yet approach so near
to be bettered by the air of the climate.”—MACKENZIE.

are

as

REEVE, LIBRARY, LEAMING TON; 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

PREFACE.

PHILOSOPHERS have divested themselves of their

natural apathy, and Poets have risen above them

selves in descanting on the Pleasures of Melan

choly.

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."