text:  True as is the above reasoning with respect to the slighter productions of poetry in all languages it is peculiarly true when applied to the smaller offspring of Pushkin's muse; and were we not sufficiently convinced of the danger and the arduousness of our attempt by our own experience and by analogy we should have found abundant reason for diffidence in the often repeated counsels of Russians who all unite in asserting that there is something so peculiarly delicate and inimitable in the diction and versification of these little pieces as to be almost beyond the reach of a foreigner's _appreciation_ and consequently that any attempt at _imitation_ must _a fortiori_ of necessity be a failure