istorian
of British India. It ought to be known that Mr Mill had the generosity,
not only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming acrimony with which he
had been assailed, and was, when his valuable life closed, on terms of
cordial friendship with his assailant."

Under these circumstances, considerable doubt has been felt as to the
propriety of republishing the three Essays in the present collection.
But it has been determined, not without much hesitation, that they
should appear. It is felt that no disrespect is shown to the memory of
Mr Mill, when the publication is accompanied by so full an apology for
the tone adopted towards him; and Mr Mill himself would have been the
last to wish for the suppression of opinions on the ground that they
were in express antagonism to his own. The grave has now closed upon the
assailant as well as the assailed. On the other hand, it cannot but
be desirable that opinions which the author retained to the last, on
important questions in politics and morals, should be before the public.

Some of the poems now collected have already appeared in print; others
are supplied by the recollection of friends. The first two are published
on account of their having been composed in the author's childhood. In
the poems, as well as in the prose works, will be occasionally found
thoughts and expressions which have afterwards been adopted in later
productions.

No alteration whatever has been made from the form in which the author
left the several articles, with the exception of some changes in
punctuation, and the correction of one or two obvious misprints.

T.F.E. London, June 1860.

CONTENTS.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.

Fragments of a Roman Tale. (June 1823.)

On the Royal Society of Literature. (June 1823.)

Scenes from "Athenian Revels." (January 1824.)

Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. I. Dante. (January
1824.)

Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. II. Petrarch. (April
1824.)

Some account of the Great Lawsuit between the Parishes of St Dennis and
St George in the Water. (April 1824.)

A Conversation between Mr Abraham Cowley and Mr John Milton, touching
the Great Civil War. (August 1824.)

On the Athenian Orators. (August 1824.)

A Prophetic Account of a Grand National Epic Poem, to be entitled "The
Wellingtoniad," and to be Published A.D. 2824. (November 1824.)

On Mitford's History of Greece. (November 1824.)