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 the wrong handle, and cannot be trusted to make the needful allowance, and supply the inevitable omissions.  Whereas it is a more reasonable and a more comfortable belief, that the only part of the world which is in the least likely to concern itself with such volumes as these is composed of a number of enlightened and sympathetic persons’ (as before, Preface, vii. viii.).  The closing consideration ought to overweigh all scruples and reserve.[10]

[10] The charming ‘Journal’ in full of Miss WORDSWORTH has only within the past year been published.  The welcome it has met with—­having bounded into a third edition already—­is at once proof of the soundness of judgment that at long-last issued it, if it be also accusatory that many have gone who yearned to read it.  The Editor ventures to invite special attention to WORDSWORTH’S own express wish that the foreign ‘Journals’ of Miss WORDSWORTH and Mrs. WORDSWORTH should be published.  Surely his words ought to be imperative (vol. iii. p. 77)?