"A Man he seems of cheerful yesterdays The Excursion, Book VII. 187116 PREFACE. THE materials placed in the hands of the Editor, from which to make selections for the following work, were: —1. Brief journals reaching as far as 1810, inclusive; 2. A regular and full home Diary, begun in 1811, and continued till within five days of Mr. Robinson's death, forming thirty-five closely-written volumes; 3. About thirty volumes of Journals of tours; 4. Reminiscences, reaching down to the year 1843, inclusive; 5. Miscellaneous papers; 6. A large number of letters. It was Mr. Robinson's intention to very materially reduce the number of letters, and to leave only those which were valuable. This sifting he regarded as a chief work of his later years, and he was fond of quoting respecting it the saying of Dr. Aikin when struck by paralysis: "I must make the most of the salvage of life." But although he destroyed a vast number of letters, the work of selection and arrangement was very far from completed. The part of his papers of which he himself contemplated the posthumous publication, was a selection from his Reminiscences, with some letters. Many friends repeatedly urged him to make the necessary preparation for such a publication. Among these were Rogers VOL I. b and Wordsworth. On the recommendation of the latter, Mr. Robinson laid special stress, for he said, "Wordsworth must be aware that there are many interesting particulars respecting himself, which I should wish to preserve, if I preserved anything." And the recommendation was, therefore, interpreted as a sanction to including these particulars with those relating to Goethe, Wieland, and others. To his executors, Mr. Robinson used to say, "If you were to print all that you find," (referring to the Reminiscences) “I should think you would show great want of judgment; and I should think the same if you came to the conclusion that there is nothing worth printing." About six weeks before his death, he met Mr. Macmillan, the publisher of these volumes, who, as they were going down to lunch, gave him his arm, and on the stairs said, "Mr. Robinson, I wonder that you have never been induced to undertake some great literary work." Mr. Robinson stopped, and placing his hand on Mr. Macmillan's shoulder, answered, "It is because I am a wise man. I early found that I had not the literary ability to give me such a place among English authors as I should have desired; but I thought that I had an opportunity of gaining a knowledge of many of the most distinguished men of the age, and that I might do some good by keeping a record of my interviews with them." And writing to his brother in 1842, he said, "When you complain of my not being so copious as I ought on such occasions, you only remind me of what I am already sufficiently aware, and that I want in an eminent degree the Boswell faculty. With his excellent memory and tact, had I early in life set about following his example, I might, beyond all doubt, have supplied a few volumes superior in value to his 'Johnson,' though they would not have been so popular. Certainly the names recorded in his great work are not so important. as Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Wieland, the Duchesses Amelia and Louisa of Weimar, and Tieck-as Madame de Staël, La Fayette, Abbé Grégoire, Benjamin Constant-as Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Lamb, Rogers, Hazlitt, Mrs. Barbauld, Clarkson, &c. &c. &c., for I could add a great number of minor stars. And yet what has come of all this? Nothing. What will come of it? Perhaps nothing." From the year 1811 the Diary is entitled to the most prominent place. The Reminiscences were not begun. till Mr. Robinson had nearly reached three score years and ten; and even if they had been written in the freshness of his memory, and in the fulness of his mental vigour, they would still hardly have had equal value with the daily record, which breathes the air of the scenes and incidents to which it relates. In the execution of his task, the Editor has kept two objects especially in view; first, to preserve interesting particulars respecting distinguished men, both in England and on the Continent; and, secondly, to keep unbroken the thread of Mr. Robinson's own life. In order to effect the latter object, he has occasionally ventured to abridge the narrative; as, for example, in the lengthened Continental tour, beginning in 1829 and ending in 1831. One reason why the materials were put into his hands rather than those of one possessing more literary experience was, that he had been himself a student at German Universities, and was interested in German literature; but the chief reason was that, from various circumstances, he was likely to give due prominence to Mr. Robinson's own modes of thinking and mental characteristics, his independent unconforming ways, without which those who knew him best would. feel that they had not a faithful portrait of their friend. If this were not secured, the executors would consider that they were not carrying out his own aim, in leaving the selection of editor to them, without guidance or restraint. The Editor has, therefore, felt it to be his duty to take all the care he could that the unpopular, or commonly uninteresting, subjects of Mr. Robinson's thought and interest should not be suppressed, in order to make the book more in accordance with the public taste. The Editor cannot venture to hope that, in the first edition of the work, there will not be many mistakes. Mr. Robinson often excited surprise by his wonderful memory in the narration of personal incidents; but in regard to dates and names, it was not altogether without grounds that he called himself an incorrigible blunderer. Of the mass of MS. which remains after selection, it will be enough to say, that it, for the most part, refers simply to the ordinary matters of private life, but that there are some parts which, though they could not, with propriety, be published now, may in time have a public interest and value.* It may, perhaps, not be out * Mr. Robinson's papers will be carefully preserved with a view to any historical value they may acquire by the lapse of time. It may be stated, as a rough |