"As an errand-boy I had, of course, many hardships to undergo, and to bear with much tyranny; and that led me into reasoning upon men and things, the causes of misery, the anomalies of our societary state, politics &tc., and the circle of my being rapidly out-surged. New power came to me with all that I saw and thought and read. I studied political works, - such as Paine, Volney, Howitt, Louis Blanc, &tc, which gave me another element to mould into my verse, though I am convinced that a poet must sacrifice much if he write party-political poetry."