OF CHARLES LAMB; CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF HIS LETTERS NOT BEFORE PUBLISHED, WITH BY THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, ONE OF HIS EXECUTORS. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL I. LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. ΤΟ WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Esq., D.C.L., POET LAUREATE, THESE FINAL MEMORIALS OF ONE WHO CHERISHED HIS FRIENDSHIP AS A COMFORT AMIDST GRIEFS AND A GLORY AMIDST DEPRESSIONS, ARE, WITH AFFECTION AND RESPECT, INSCRIBED BY ONE WHOSE PRIDE IS TO HAVE BEEN IN OLD TIME HIS EARNEST ADMIRER, AND ONE OF WHOSE FONDEST WISHES IS THAT HE MAY BE LONG SPARED TO ENJOY FAME, RARELY ACCORDED TO THE LIVING, PREFACE. NEARLY twelve years have elapsed since the Letters of Charles Lamb, accompanied by such slight sketch of his Life as might link them together, and explain the circumstances to which they refer, were given to the world. In the Preface to that work, reference was made to letters yet remaining unpublished, and to a period when a more complete estimate might be formed of the singular and delightful character of the writer than was there presented. That period has arrived. Several of his friends, who might possibly have felt a moment's pain at the publication of some of those effusions of kindness, in which they are sportively mentioned, have been removed by death; and the |
