too late. I know there is in the public Mind as great contempt for him
who bears the appellation of _Taylor_, as STERNE has made old SHANDY
have for SIMKIN, NECKEY, or TRISTRAM. How many CAESARS and POMPEYS, says
he, by mere inspiration of the names, have been rendered worthy of them?
And how many are there who might have done exceedingly well in the
World, had not their Characters and Spirits been totally depress'd and
Nicodemiz'd; and I will add (says Mr. N. BLOOMFIELD) taylor'd into
nothing? In the REHEARSAL, the Author, to make the most ridiculous
part of it still more ridiculous, tells us, that it was written to a
Taylor, and by a Taylor's Wife. And even the discerning SPECTATOR
has given into this common-place raillery in the Monkey's Letter to her
Mistress. He has made the Soul which inhabited Pug's Body, in recounting
the humiliating State it had formerly been in, say, that he had been a
Taylor, a Shrimp, and a Tom-tit. It is from these causes, as well as
from the habits and appearance contracted by a recluse and sedentary
Life, that, in the enlighten'd, as well as the ignorant, the ideas of
Taylor and Insignificance are inseparably link'd together."

I prevail'd, notwithstanding, that this word, whose anti-poetic
influence is so dreaded, should be in the Book. About half a Century
ago, there seem'd a degree of incredulity as to the possibility of
Courage in a Taylor. ELLIOT'S LIGHT HORSE, at that time compos'd of
Taylor-Volunteers. effectually overcame that prejudice. It remain'd
to dissolve another still more irrational prepossession, that a Taylor
cannot be a Poet. And this Volume will be a victorious Host against an
Army of such Prejudices. Indeed the Force is greater than such a Combat
requires: for stubborn as other Prejudices may still be, our litterary
Prejudices have, in this Age, been rapidly giving way to Candour,
Reason, Common-Sense, and the Evidence of Fact. We have long known that
a Scotch Plough-Boy and a Milk-Woman[7] could still be Poets of high