iv PREFACE. 



few cases) the usual plan of indicating the existence of 

 omissions or insertions. My father's letters give fre- 

 quent evidence of having been written when he was 

 tired or hurried, and they bear the marks of this cir- 

 cumstance. In writing to a friend, or to one of his 

 family, he frequently omitted the articles : these have 

 been inserted without the usual indications, except in 

 a few instances {e. g. vol. i. p. 177), where it is of spe- 

 cial interest to preserve intact the hurried character 

 of the letter. Other small words, such as of, to, &c., 

 have been inserted usually within brackets. I have 

 not follow^ed the originals as regards the spelling of 

 names, the use of capitals, or in the matter of punctu- 

 ation. My father underlined many words in his let- 

 ters ; these have not always been given in italics, — 

 a rendering which would unfairly exaggerate their 

 effect. 



The Diary or Pocket-book, from which quotations 

 occur in the following pages, has been of value as sup- 

 plying a frame-work of facts round which letters may 

 be grouped. It is unfortunately written with great 

 brevity, the history of a year being compressed into a 

 page or less ; and contains little more than the dates 

 of the principal events of his life, together with entries 

 as to his work, and as to the duration of his more 

 serious illnesses. He rarely dated his letters, so that 

 but for the Diary it would have been all but impossi- 

 ble to unravel the history of his books. It has also 

 enabled rrte to assign dates to many letters which 

 would otherwise have been shorn of half their value. 



Of letters addressed to my father I have not made 

 much use. It was his custom to file all letters re- 

 ceived, and when his slender stock of files (" spits " as 

 he called them) *was exhausted, he Avould burn the let- 

 ters of several years, in order that he might make use 



