either to his fraud or to his veracity.

The question therefore concerning the authenticity of these Poems must
now be decided by an examination of the fragments upon vellum, which
Mr. Barrett received from Chatterton as part of his original MSS.,
and by the internal evidence which the several pieces afford. If the
Fragments shall be judged to be genuine, it will still remain to be
determined, how far their genuineness should serve to authenticate the
rest of the collection, of which no copies, older than those made by
Chatterton, have ever been produced. On the other hand, if the writing
of the Fragments shall be judged to be counterfeit and forged by
Chatterton, it will not of necessity follow, that the matter of
them was also forged by him, and still less, that all the other
compositions, which he professed to have copied from antient MSS.,
were merely inventions of his own. In either case, the decision must
finally depend upon the internal evidence.

It may be expected perhaps, that the Editor should give an opinion
upon this important question; but he rather chooses, for many reasons,
to leave it to the determination of the unprejudiced and intelligent
Reader. He had long been desirous that these Poems should be printed;
and therefore readily undertook the charge of superintending the
edition. This he has executed in the manner, which seemed to him best
suited to such a publication; and here he means that his task should
end. Whether the Poems be really antient, or modern; the compositions
of Rowley, or the forgeries of Chatterton; they must always be
considered as a most singular literary curiosity.

[Footnote 1: The history of this youth is so intimately connected with
that of the poems now published, that the Reader cannot be too early