WITNESS SO MANY VOLUMES, WHERETO THOU

HAST SET THY NOTES UNDER THY LEARNED HAND,

AND MARK'D THEM WITH THAT PRINT, AS WILL SHOW HOW

THE POINT OF THY CONCEIVING THOUGHTS DID STAND;
THAT NONE WOULD THINK, IF ALL THY LIFE HAD BEEN
TURN'D INTO LEISURE, THOU COULDST HAVE ATTAIN'D
SO MUCH OF TIME, TO HAVE PERUS'D AND SEEN
SO MANY VOLUMES THAT SO MUCH CONTAIN'D."

DANIEL. Funeral Poem upon the Death of the late Noble Earl of
Devonshire.-" WELL-LANGUAGED DANIEL," as BROWNE calls
him in his "BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS," was one of Southey's
favourite Poets.

JOHN WOOD WARTER.

Preface.

NEXPECTED and accidental circumstances have entailed upon me the publication of the lamented Southey's COMMON-PLACE BOOK. Had it been committed to my hands in the first instance, I should probably have made an arrangement somewhat different ;-as it is, I carry out, as far as I am enabled to do, the arrangement which is detailed in the publisher's Prospectus.

I am the Editor of the present volume, complete in itself, from p. 310; and those who are conversant in literary investigation, will make allowance for such errors as have escaped me. As far as my limited reading, and the resources of a private library, permitted, I have investigated doubtful passages, and have corrected imperfect references. Nothing but reverence for the honoured name of Southey would have induced me, with my clerical calls and studies, to have entered upon the work. The difficulty of carrying it out only, shows the wonderful stores, the accumulated learning, and the unlimited research, of the excellently single-hearted, the devout, and gifted Collector. Most truly may it be said of him, in the words of STEPHEN HAWES, in his "PAStime of PLEASURE,"-speaking of MASTEr Lidgate,—

"And who his bokes list to hear or see,

In them he shall find Elocution

With as good order as may be,

Keeping full close the moralization
Of the trouthe of his great intencion.
Whose name is registered in remembraunce,

For to endure by long continuance."

The headings of such passages as are not bracketed are the lamented Collector's ;-for the rest, (in the quaint Words of old FULLER, in his ABEL REDIVIVUS,) "my own meanness" is responsible. I had likewise, in preparing the sheets for the press, added a few notes on difficult and doubtful passages or expressions-but on consideration I crossed them out. One or two inadvertently remain, pp. 444. 515. 523. which may serve as a sample of others. The Index I have taken such pains with as I might.

The lines quoted on the fly leaf from Daniel, I have quoted in the new edition of THE DOCTOR, &c. in one volume ;-but they seem, if possible, more to the purpose here. The purity of his English weighs with me, as it did with the lamented Southey.

JOHN WOOD WARTER.

VICARAGE, WEST TARRING, SUSSEX,
APRIL 10, 1849.