“And I have seen him, but I know not where:” 
For I should mourn the mischief I had done,
If as the likeness all would fix on one.
         ---------------------
   Man’s Vice and Crime I combat as I can,
But to his god and conscience leave the Man;
I search (a Quixote!) all the land about,
To find its Giants and Enchanters out, —
(The Giant-Folly, the Enchanter-Vice,
Whom doubtless I shall vanquish in a trice;) —
But is there man whom I would injure?—­No! 
I am to him a fellow, not a foe, —
A fellow-sinner, who must rather dread
The bolt, than hurl it at another’s head. 
   No! let the guiltless, if there such be found,
Launch forth the spear, and deal the deadly wound. 
How can I so the cause of Virtue aid,
Who am myself attainted and afraid? 
Yet as I can, I point the powers of rhyme,
And, sparing criminals, attack the crime.

Footnotes: 

{1} Note:  Indentation and punctuation as original.

{2} The wants and mortifications of a poor clergyman are the subjects of one portion of this Letter; and he being represented as a stranger in the Borough, it may be necessary to make some apology for his appearance in the Poem.  Previous to a late meeting of a literary society, whose benevolent purpose is well known to the public, I was induced by a friend to compose a few verses, in which, with the general commendation of the design, should be introduced a hint that the bounty might be farther extended; these verses, a gentleman did me the honour to recite at the meeting, and they were printed as an extract from the Poem, to which, in fact, they may be called an appendage.

{3} The account of Coddrington occurs in “The Mirrour for Magistrates.”  He suffered in the reign of Richard III.

{4} If I have in this letter praised the good-humour of a man confessedly too inattentive to business, and if, in another (amusements), I have written somewhat sarcastically of “the brick-floored parlour which the butcher lets,” be credit given to me, that, in the one case, I had no intention to apologise for idleness, nor any design in the other to treat with contempt the resources of the poor.  The good-humour is considered as the consolation of disappointment; and the room is so mentioned because the lodger is vain.  Most of my readers will perceive this:  but I shall be sorry if by any I am supposed to make pleas for the vices of men, or treat their wants or infirmities with derision or with disdain.