A SATIRICAL RHAPSODY.

VELUTI IN SPECULUM.

Watts, Wim

"From what I have gathered from your own relation," said the king,
"and the answers I have, with much pains, wringed and extorted from
you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most
pernicious race of little, odious vermin, that Nature ever suffered to
crawl upon the surface of the earth.”—Gulliver's Travels.

My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I ob-
served in this abominable animal a perfect human figure."-Ibid.

"Where knaves and fools combined o'er all prevail."-Byron.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY G. VALE, 3 FRANKLIN SQUARE.

1846.

Labadie Gel. gift

4-16-62

PREFACE

BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHER.

This work first appeared in England, without name, perhaps because some of the allusions might be there considered personal, and libellous. It was republished, in parts, in The Comet, a periodical long since out of print. A few copies were also for sale in octavo form, decently bound, but at a high price. These also have disappeared; and if any remain, they will be sought after for the library, by those who wish to keep it in that form.

The object of the poem is to ridicule the vices and follies of mankind, especially those of pride, oppression, hypocrisy, or superstition; and its tendency is, consequently, to elevate society; while its merits as a poem, and its wit, are calculated to secure it a hearing, at the same time, the philosophy, the learning, and the information amassed in its notes, must afford solid food for those who profess to have no appetite for poetry.

Our object in reprinting it, is, not only to give it to the public, who are now deprived of it, but to give it in a cheap form, so that it may come within the reach of thousands who would otherwise never see it.

G. V.