accord with ROSSETTI'S handy one-volume edition of the Poems, but as a
rule will offer no difficulty in any. The I.F. MSS. are marked with an
asterisk [*]: They are _for the first time_ furnished in their entirety,
and accurately.


II. _Letters and Extracts of Letters_.

These are arranged as nearly as possible chronologically from the
'Memoirs,' &c. &c., with the benefit, as before, of collation in many
cases of the original MSS., especially in the Sir W.R. HAMILTON letters,
and a number are _for the first time printed_. The Editor does not at
all like 'Extracts,' and must be permitted to regret that what in his
judgment was an antiquated and mistaken idea of biography led the
excellent as learned Bishop of Lincoln to abridge and mutilate so very
many--the places not always marked. On this and the principle and
_motif_ which approve and vindicate the publication of the Letters of
every really potential intellect such as WORDSWORTH'S, the accomplished
daughter of SARA COLERIDGE has remarked: 'A book composed of epistolary
extracts can never be a wholly satisfactory one, because its contents
are not only relative and fragmentary, but unauthorised and unrevised.
To arrest the passing utterances of the hour, and reveal to the world
that which was spoken either in the innermost circle of home affection,
or in the outer (but still guarded) circle of social or friendly
intercourse, seems almost like a betrayal of confidence, and is a step
which cannot be taken by survivors without some feelings of hesitation
and reluctance. That reluctance is only to be overcome by the sense
that, however natural, it is partly founded on delusion--a delusion
which leads us to personify "the world," to our imagination, as an
obtuse and somewhat hostile individual, who is certain to take things by