thought and feeling, no matter
_how_, so she gets at your mind, and lets you into hers. A more generous
and a tenderer heart I never knew. I differ from her on many points of
religious faith, but on the whole prefer her views to those of most
others who differ from her' (ii. 5). Again: 'Miss FENWICK is to me an
angel upon earth. Her being near me now has seemed a special providence.
God bless her, and spare her to us and her many friends. She is a noble
creature, all tenderness and strength. When I first became acquainted
with her, I saw at once that her heart was of the very finest, richest
quality, and her wisdom and insight are, as ever must be in such a case,
exactly correspondent' (ibid. p. 397). Such words from one so
penetrative, so indeceivable, so great in the fullest sense as was the
daughter of _the_ COLERIDGE, makes every one long to have the same
service done for Miss FENWICK as has been done for SARA COLERIDGE and
Miss HARE, and within these weeks for Mrs. FLETCHER. Her Diaries and
Correspondence would be inestimable to lovers of WORDSWORTH; for few or
none got so near to him or entered so magnetically into his thinking.
The headings and numberings of the successive Notes--lesser and
larger--will guide to the respective Poems and places. The numberings
accord with ROSSETTI'S handy one-volume edition of the Poems, but as a
rule will offer no difficulty in any. The I.F. MSS. are marked with an
asterisk [*]: They are _for the first time_ furnished in their entirety,
and accurately.

II. _Letters and Extracts of Letters_.

These are arranged as nearly as possible chronologically from the
'Memoirs,' &c. &c., with the benefit, as before, of collation in many
cases of the original MSS., especially in the Sir W.R. HAMILTON letters,
and a number are _for the first time printed_. The Editor does not at
all like 'Extracts,' and must be permitted to regret that what in his
judgment was an antiquated and mistaken idea of biography led the
excellent as learned Bishop of Lincoln to abridge and mutilate so very
many--the places not always marked. On this and the principle and
_motif_ which approve and vindicate the publication of the Letters of
every really potential intellect such as WORDSWORTH'S, the accomplished
daughter of SARA COLERIDGE has remarked: 'A book composed of epistolary
extracts can never be a wholly satisfactory one, because its contents
are not only relative and fragmentary, but unauthorised and unrev