HE poems in this volume have, with one or two exceptions, already appeared finiprint. They are presented here as they were corrected by William Gay shortly before his death. He had then a large number of other poems, amounting to over a hundred, which he excluded from publication. Many of these were, in my Opinion, little if at all in ferior to those which he sanctioned, but, though I regret his decision in regard to them, I feel bound to respect it. Their publication would have shown that his genius was not confined to one particular sphere of poetry.