Excerpt from The Harp of Erin: A Book of Ballad-Poetry and of Native Song In this desire to make a willing audience, I have held In view now, as before, the young and the child, as well as the adult. Believing that the feelings awakened In early life effect the widest influence on the well -being of our social state, I have not scorned the introduction of songs and ballads likely to interest, and stimulate thou ht and feeling, in the early stages Of life. Although have sought rather for such food as would be relished by the plain man, of sound mind and heart, than to please the fastidious palate of the critic and scholar, yet the unsophisticated scholar mn not fail to recognize in the ballads which I have given from the able pens of samuel ferguson, george sigerson, william allingham, john campion, robert D. Joyce, aubrey DE vere, and others, compositions which will interest him; while the man of plain education will be attracted by their beauties. Like the works of Nature, they speak to young and old,1iterate and illiterate, a common language, under stplod1 by; all. They touch the heart, the emotions of w Ic ace eer, and peasant u on a common level, aiid is 5:2n democratic fire 0 the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.