EDITOR'S PREFACE. Ir is designed to embrace in the present collection of the writings of Thomas Hood, a miscellany which shall include his more serious and earnest writings-those which were written most directly from the heart, which reflect most faithfully his life and opinions, which may be emphatically called (as he himself gave name to a book which has contributed largely to these pages) HOOD'S OWN, and not the bookseller's own, the magazine's own, or the newspaper's own. If a pension had been given to Hood earlier in his life, it would have probably added much to his fame. He would have had the opportunity of writing only when his better genius prompted him; he would not have been compelled for ever to glean a scanty crop from the surface; he might oftener with time and labor have penetrated to the ore beneath. He might have been less of a Punster, but he would have been more of a Wit. The Poet-the higher title-might have been better known than the prose writer. With the exception of a few of his later poems-the Bridge of Sighs, the Song of a Shirt, and his earlier Eugene Aram-the writings of Hood which have been circulated in America have been his puns and jests, comic verses |