We cannot better explain to our readers the design of the poem from which the following extracts are taken, than by borrowing the expressions of the author, Mr. HIGGINS, of _St. Mary Axe_, in the letter which accompanied the manuscript. We must premise, that we had found ourselves called upon to remonstrate with Mr. H. on the freedom of some of the positions laid down in his other didactic poem, the “Progress of Man”; and had in the course of our remonstrance hinted something to the disadvantage of the _new principles_ which are now afloat in the world, and which are, in our opinion, working so much prejudice to the happiness of mankind. To this Mr. H. takes occasion to reply—[195] “What you call the _new principles_ are, in fact, nothing less than _new_. They are the principles of primeval nature, the system of original and unadulterated man. “If you mean by my addiction to _new principles_ that the object which I have in view in my larger work [meaning the ‘Progress of Man’] and in the several other _concomitant_ and _subsidiary_ didactic poems which are necessary to complete my plan, is to restore this first, and pure simplicity; to rescue and to recover the interesting nakedness of human nature, by ridding her of the cumbrous establishments which the folly, and pride, and self-interest of the worst part of our species have heaped upon her;—you are right. Such is my object. I do not disavow it. Nor is it mine alone. There are abundance of abler hands at work upon it. _Encyclopedias_, _Treatises_, _Novels_, _Magazines_, _Reviews_, and _New Annual Registers_, have, as you are well aware, done their part with activity and with effect. It remained to bring the _heavy_ artillery of a didactic poem to bear upon the same object. “If I have selected your paper as the channel for conveying my labours to the public, it was not because I was unaware of the hostility of your principles to mine, of the bigotry of your attachment to ‘things as they are,’ but because, I will fairly own, I found some sort of cover and disguise necessary for securing the favourable reception of my sentiments; the usual pretexts of humanity, and philanthropy, and fine feeling, by which we have for some time obtained a passport to the hearts and understandings of men, being now worn out or exploded. I could not choose but smile at my success in the first instance, in inducing _you_ to adopt my poem as your own.