could be substituted. Under these circumstances I
have again taken up the subject, and gone into it
with more fulness than formerly, omitting none of the
facts which I considered illustrative of the life and
character of the poet, and giving them in as graphic
a style as I could command. Still the hurried man-
ner in which I have had to do this amidst the press-
ure of other claims on my attention, and with the
press dogging at my heels, has prevented me from
giving some parts of the subject the thorough hand-
ling I could have wished. Those who would like to
see it treated still more at large, with the addition
of critical disquisitions and the advantage of col-
lateral facts, would do well to refer themselves to
Mr. Prior's circumstantial volumes, or to the elegant
and discursive pages of Mr. Forster.
For my own part, I can only regret my short-
comings in what to me is a labor of love; for it is a
tribute of gratitude to the memory of an author
whose writings were the delight of my childhood, and
have been a source of enjoyment to me throughout
life; and to whom, of all others, I may address the
beautiful apostrophe of Dante to Virgil,
Tu se' lo mio maestro, e 'l mio autore :
Tu se' solo colui, da cu' io tolsi
Lo bello stile, che m' ha fatto onore.