PREFACE
In the Preface to the Letters of Samuel Johnson I spoke of the hope I entertained that I should live to complete the main work of my life as a scholar by a new edition of the Lives of the Poets. I have been turned away from my purpose, at least for a time, by a letter which I received from Mr. Leslie Stephen. He asked me to edit all those writings which have long been included under the general title of Johnsoniana. The task that he proposed seemed pleasant in itself. Even had it been irksome, I should have hesitated much before I declined such a request, coming as it did from a man to whom every student of the literature, biography, and history of our country is so deeply indebted. It gratified me greatly to know that my labours had been of real service to the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography.
These two volumes of Johnsonian Miscellanies would have been ready for publication three years earlier had I not been delayed by illness, and by the necessity I have been under of passing all my winters abroad. On the banks of the Lake of Geneva, or on the shores of the Mediterranean, an editor, how ever much he may be supported by the climate, has to struggle against difficulties which might almost overwhelm him. Many
