ay, which may add to its
recommendation even with those possessed of its precursor. It contains
fac-similes of the AUTOGRAPHS of several distinguished Literati and Artists
upon the Continent;[15] who, looking at the text of the work through a less
jaundiced medium than the Parisian translator, have continued a
correspondence with the Author, upon the most friendly terms, since its
publication. The accuracy of these fac-similes must be admitted, even by
the parties themselves, to be indisputable. Among them, are several,
executed by hands.. which now CEASE to guide the pen! I had long and fondly
hoped to have been gratified by increasing testimonies of the warmth of
heart which had directed several of the pens in question--hoped ... even
against the admonition of a pagan poet ...

"Vitae summa brevis SPEM nos vetat inchoare LONGAM."

But such hopes are now irretrievably cut off; and the remembrance of the
past must solace the anticipations of the future.

So much respecting the _decorative_ department of this new edition of the
Tour. I have now to request the Reader's attention to a few points more
immediately connected with what may be considered its _intrinsic_ worth. In
the first place, it may be pronounced to be an Edition both _abridged_ and
_enlarged_: abridged, as regards the lengthiness of description of many of
the MSS. and Printed Books--and enlarged, as respects the addition, of many
notes; partly of a controversial, and partly of an obituary, description.
The "Antiquarian and Picturesque" portions remain nearly as heretofore; and
upon the whole I doubt whether the amputation of matter has extended beyond
_an eighth_ of what appeared in the previous edition. It had long ago been
suggested to me--from a quarter too high and respectable to doubt the
wisdom of its decision--that the Contents of this Tour should be made known
to the Public through a less costly medium:--that the objects described in
it were, in a measure, new and interesting--but that the high price of the
purchase rendered it, to the majority of Readers, an inaccessible
publication. I hope that these objections are fully met, and successfully
set aside, by the Work in its PRESENT FORM. To have produced it, _wholly
divested_ of ornament, would have been as foreign to my habits as repugnant
to my feelings. I have therefore, as I would willingly conclude, hit upon
the happy medium--between sterility and excess of decoration.

After all, the grea