as Canon Rawnsley, Mr.
Harry Goodwin, and Mr. Rix, for example, know many parts of it much
better than I do; but, as I have often had to compare my own judgment
with that of such experts as the late Dr. Cradock, Principal of
Brasenose College, Oxford, and others, I may add that, when I differ
from them, it has been only after a re-examination of their evidence, at
the localities themselves.

SIXTH. Several Poems, and fragments of poems, hitherto unpublished--or
published in stray quarters, and in desultory fashion--will find a place
in this edition; but I reserve these fragments, and place them all
together, in an Appendix to the last volume of the "Poetical Works." If
it is desirable to print these poems, in such an edition as this, it is
equally desirable to separate them from those which Wordsworth himself
sanctioned in his final edition of 1849-50.

Every great author in the Literature of the World--whether he lives to
old age (when his judgment may possibly be less critical) or dies young
(when it may be relatively more accurate)--should himself determine what
portions of his work ought, and what ought not to survive. At the same
time,--while I do not presume to judge in the case of writers whom I
know less fully than I happen to know Wordsworth and his
contemporaries,--it seems clear that the very greatest men have
occasionally erred as to what parts of their writings might, with most
advantage, survive; and that they have even more frequently erred as to
what MS. letters, etc.,--casting light on their contemporaries--should,
or should not, be preserved. I am convinced, for example, that if the
Wordsworth household had not destroyed all the letters which Coleridge
sent to them, in the first decade of this century, the world would now
possess much important knowledge which is for ever lost. It may have
been wise, for reasons now unknown, to burn those letters, written by
Coleridge: but the students of the literature of the period would gladly
have them now.

Passing from the question of the preservation of Letters, it is evident
that Wordsworth was very careful in distinguishing between the Verses
which he sent to Newspapers and Magazines, and those Poems which he
included in his published volumes. His anxiety on this point may be
inferred from the way in which he more than once emphasised the fact of
republication, e.g. in 'Peter Bell' (1819) he put the following
prefatory note to four sonnets, which had pre