PREFACE. THE Author of the following Work is so well known by his various compositions, and especially by his "Life of Cowper," that if an anecdote connected with the delivery of it to the public was not too remarkable to be omitted, a preface might be dispensed with, on the present occasion, The anecdote is this.-In consequence of an arrangement with his publisher, a condition of which was that this Work should be delivered for the Press on the Author's decease, a very considerable annuity was secured to him during the last twelve years of his life; a fact which it would seem a sort of violence to the history of literature to withhold, especially as the forming and fulfilling of such an arrangement, with all its contingencies, must be considered as highly creditable to the parties. The Editor takes this opportunity of adding, that, in concluding the Life of Hayley, he has been induced to insert a selection of letters, which the Author addressed to himself; the work appearing to stand in need of some elucidation at the periods to which they refer: a measure which he was the more inclined to adopt, as no letters of the author to his other friends, had the rapidity of the Press allowed him to assemble them, would have been likely to answer that purpose. He has also abstracted some passages from the Memoir, which, if an opportunity of advising had been afforded him, he is persuaded the Author would himself have omitted. In other respects, the work is printed, verbatim, from the copy left by Mr. Hayley in his own hand-writing; and, it is hoped, will recommend itself to the more intimate friends of the Author, and to the friends, indeed, of literature in general, as possessing the advantages that are usually identified with the stamp and interest of auto-biography. Ocular sufferings-Visit in Derbyshire-New Verses-Visit to Ford Abbey— Acquaintance with Wm. Pitt, at Lyme-Preparations to settle at Eartham 121 |