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District of Connecticut, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 15th day of October, in the forty-seventh year of the Independence of the United States of America, JAMES G. PERCIVAL, of the said District, has deposited in this Office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: "PROMETHEUS, PART II. WITH OTHER POEMS, BY JAMES G. PERCIVAL.

Not sedulous by nature to indite

Wars, hitherto the only argument

Heroic DEEM'D;

MILTON."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."

CHAS. A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

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PREFACE

I HAVE but little to say by way of preface. An independent spirit will not beg an excuse; and an author ought not to publish, unless he believes he needs none. This second part of Prometheus is entirely new. It is like the first, discursive, but not entirely destitute of a plan to those who can detect it. It must stand or fall by its own merits, and therefore needs no farther apology. It was written hastily, in a very few days. This is no apology, if it is bad. If it is good, it needs none.

In horâ sæpe ducentos,

Ut magnum, versus dictabat, stans pede in uno :
Erat quod tollere velles :

Scribendi recte: nam, ut multum, nil moror.

This has been a standing law of sober criticism for two thousand years,-Write much, if you please, but keep it long, and prune it well. I must confess,

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