Excerpt from The Poetical Works of Nathaniel Cotton: Collated With the Best Editions Which, like a noxious weed, can spoil The fairest flowers, and choke the soil? 'tis Slander, - and, with shame I own, The vice of human kind alone. Be Slander then my leading dream, Though you're a stranger to the theme Thy softer breast, and honest heart. 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.