“Such letters," says Lord Bacon, “as are written from wise men, are, of all the words of man, in my judgment, the best ; for they are more natural than orations and public speeches, and more advised than conferences or private ones.” The sources of pleasure and instruction to be found in the private correspondence of eminent persons, have never been fully explored'; much less have they been rendered accessible to the bulk of the reading public. Our language abounds in letters which contain the most vivid pictures of manners, and the most faithful and striking delineations of character; which are full of wit, wisdom, fancy, useful knowledge, noble and pious sentiment.
The task of the Editor has been that of selection from many hundreds of volumes, of classification upon some comprehensive system, and of occasional illustration and explanation. Whilst our earlier literature has been freely laid under contribution, much material has been been derived from the more recent. No letter has been introduced to which it was supposed any exception could be taken on the ground of taste or morals. Those only have been selected whose
intrinsic merit was preëminent, or which shed light on some great public transaction, or the character of some distinguished person. Scaliger thought it very impertinent in Montaigne to think the world cared which he liked best, white wine or red; but it is nevertheless true, an unfading freshness of interest hangs around these trivial details which brings us, as it were, into the familiar presence of famous men. And probably very few would sympathize with the sentiment of Wordsworth, that if records of Horace and his contemporaries, composed upon“ the Boswellian plan,” were unearthed from the ruins of Herculaneum, he would regret to hear it, “ lest the beautiful ideal of those illustrious persons should be disfigured by incongruous features."