FESTUS

A POEM

BY

PHILIP JAMES BAILEY

BARRISTER AT LAW

Fifth American Edition

BOSTON

BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY

1847.

PR 4052 •F4 1847

PREFACE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

WE here present to the American public a book which has produced no little sensation in England, and which has been, for some time, known to many in this country. But although the first edition was issued six years since, it has had but a limited circulation among us; and it is believed that in re-publishing 'FESTUS,' we not only perform a work which its merits demand, but open, for the first time, to many who will appreciate it, a great and original poem. The peculiar value of the second English edition, from which this is printed, consists in the 'Proem,' which was not attached to the first. Having placed at the end of the volume some of the highest literary opinions in England, we will not intrude any analysis of our own. But a word upon one point. With many minds, it will be difficult to acquit