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PREFACE.

to supply many omissions., and to restore point to many
anecdotes mistold or misunderstood; but while all this
was done silently, Mr. Prior's name was introduced into
the text of my narrative not less than fifteen times, and
a brief advertisement at its close was devoted to the
eulogistic statement (for which I can only now implore the
pardon of my readers) that the " diligent labour, enthusi-
" asm, and ability displayed in his edition and elaborate
" memoir twelve years ago, had placed every subsequent
" writer under weighty obligations to him."

O «/ O

If any one then had warned me of the impending wrath
of Mr. Prior, it would have appeared to me simply ridi-
culous. With some reason, perhaps, any new biographer
may demand a brief interval for public judgment before
a successor shall occupy his ground, but even this in courtesy
only; and it never occurred to me to question Mr. Wash-
ington Irving's perfect right to avail himself to the utter-
most of the present work, though he did so within as
many weeks as I had waited years before encroaching on
Mr. Prior's. But if any one had gravely assured me that
the author of a book published twelve years, and which,
with no encouragement for a second edition, had for more
than half that time been transferred to the shelves of the
cheap bookstalls, would think himself entitled coarsely to
assail me for reopeniDg his 'subject anew, I should have
laughed at a suggestion so incredible; and if, in support of
the statement, details of the proposed attack had been
given as based chiefly on the imputation of borrowing
without acknowledgment, I should have convinced my
informant, by the series of examples I am now about to
submit to the reader, how monstrous and impossible it was



	PREFACE. to supply many omissions., and to restore point to many anecdotes mistold or misunderstood; but while all this was done silently, Mr. Prior's name was introduced into the text of my narrative not less than fifteen times, and a brief advertisement at its close was devoted to the eulogistic statement (for which I can only now implore the pardon of my readers) that the " diligent labour, enthusi- " asm, and ability displayed in his edition and elaborate " memoir twelve years ago, had placed every subsequent " writer under weighty obligations to him." O «/ O If any one then had warned me of the impending wrath of Mr. Prior, it would have appeared to me simply ridi- culous. With some reason, perhaps, any new biographer may demand a brief interval for public judgment before a successor shall occupy his ground, but even this in courtesy only; and it never occurred to me to question Mr. Wash- ington Irving's perfect right to avail himself to the utter- most of the present work, though he did so within as many weeks as I had waited years before encroaching on Mr. Prior's. But if any one had gravely assured me that the author of a book published twelve years, and which, with no encouragement for a second edition, had for more than half that time been transferred to the shelves of the cheap bookstalls, would think himself entitled coarsely to assail me for reopeniDg his 'subject anew, I should have laughed at a suggestion so incredible; and if, in support of the statement, details of the proposed attack had been given as based chiefly on the imputation of borrowing without acknowledgment, I should have convinced my informant, by the series of examples I am now about to submit to the reader, how monstrous and impossible it was