First Sentence

"In a note or preface (I forget which) by Mr W. Wordsworth to a poem, the subject of which, as far as it is intelligible, is the remorse of an unnatural mother for the destruction of a natural child, the courteous reader is desired to extend his usual courtesy so far as to suppose that the narrative is narrated by 'the captain of a merchantman or small trading vessel, lately retired upon a small annuity to some inland town, etc. etc.'"