Beside its intrinsic difficulties, the subject labors
under a disadvantage too obvious to have escaped
notice. It has so generally occupied the imaginations
of believers in the Scriptures, that most have
adopted respecting it their own notions: whoever
selects it as a theme, therefore, exposes his work to
criticism on account of its theology, as well as its
poetry; and they who think the former objectionable,
will not, easily, be pleased with the latter. The
object, however, was not to declare opinions; but
simply to present such a view of the last grand spectacle
as seemed the most susceptible of poetical
embellishment.
New York, April, 1821.
