VI

To save a question that is sometimes put, it is proper to say, that in naming two of the poems after two of the Muses, nothing more was intended than a suggestion of their general character and aim. In a former note of mine (which you printed as a kind of preface to the last edition), I made certain explanations which I thought might be needed; but as nobody seems to have misinterpreted any thing, we will trust our book hereafter to itself, not doubting that whatever is good in it will redeem and justify the

rest.

BOSTON, January 13th, 1849.