I know there are some worthy people who consider the study of Poetry incompatible with the grave duties of a Medical Man; and think that the Physician who writes but middling verses will write still worse prescriptions. The ancients thought differently on this subject, for Apollo was the God both of Poetry and Physic; but, without pretending to determine whether the remark is as incorrect as it is unclassical, I beg to plead with respect to my individual case, that almost the whole of the following Poems were written many years ago, and that the collection is very much of the nature of the feast, which a man on the eve of getting married gives to his idle bachelor acquaintance, intended as a polite dismissal of them and their pursuits, Tynemouth, May 1st, 1838, |