some one dear enough to him and me, but whom the world will fail to recognize as more than a shadow or a name; I believe that no harsh judgment will be passed upon my errors. And yet there has been no circumstance described, however trifling in appearance, no individual indicated, however obscure, that did not in some tangible and distinct way bear a part in the formation of his character or of his tastes, in the awakening of his intellect or of his emotions, in the suggestion of trains of thought or dreams of imagination that find embodiment in his Poems, in his Essays, or in the Letters themselves.
"He was one of those to whom in a short time it is given to live a long time:" so said of him one of the most famous of living men. This, I believe, will be found to be true. His history presents no startling incidents; but it is the history of a long life; a life of the intellect and of the heart; of intellectual enterprise and intellectual achievements; of feelings various, deep, and true : and few dying at the age of three-and-twenty have left behind them so much work that has been the product of impulses so genuine; of culture so lovingly pursued; of purposes so generous, so honest, so clear of the taint of vanity; of aspirations so transcendently pure.
In this book he will be found, as I have implied, chiefly his own unconscious biographer. If it