364 



From the same. 



My dear Friend, Liverpool, July 14, 1821. 



You will probably have seen by the public pa- 

 pers that I have undertaken to give my assistance 

 to Mr. Valpy, in publishing a collection of the 

 Italian poets in 48 volumes ; in which it is intended 

 that the works of each author should be intro- 

 duced by biographical and critical dissertations, 

 extracted from the best literary historians and 

 critics of Italy, — a mode which I proposed. You 

 will perhaps be more surprised to hear that I have 

 also acceded to a proposal made to me to write a 

 new life of Pope, and publish a new edition of his 

 works, — an undertaking of much more labour than 

 the other, and at the present time, in which a sharp 

 contest is carrying on both as to his moral and 

 poetical character, attended with some peculiar dif- 

 ficulties. From a pretty close examination of the 

 later editions of his works, I am not, however, 

 greatly discouraged; nor can I help thinking that, 

 however deficient I may be found in some respects, 

 I shall be able to give an edition more just to the 

 character of the author, and more accommodated to 

 the use of the general reader, than any of those 

 hat have been published since the time of War- 

 burton. 



When to these I add my additional volume to 

 the Life of Lorenzo, you will have great reason to 

 accuse me of presumption, and perhaps of folly : 

 but I know not how it is, — I never can accomplish 



