preface.

IX

the original Letters or Papers, do those extracts entirelyagree with the originals.

Dr. Clarke and Dr. M‘Arthur seem to hare been actu-ated by the same love of improving the Letters, whichfell into their hands, as their predecessor Mr. Charnock;and though they, like him, thereby disregarded the firstprinciple of Editorship, they are rarely open to the sus-picion of having made the alterations from a w r orse motivethan the desire to exhibit Nelson’s productious in what,they considered, a fitting epistolary state; as if a Hero couldnever think, write, or speak naturally, but must alwaysappear in full dress. Be the motive, however, what itmight, the effect is, that no reliance can be placed on theliteral fidelity of any one extract printed in their volumi-nous work.

VIII. “ The Life of Nelson. By Robert Southey ,Esq., LL.D., Poet Laureat .” 12mo.— This, the mostpopular of all the Memoirs of Nelson, is an enlarge-ment of its Author’s article on Charnock’s, Harrison’s,Churchill’s, and Clarke and M‘Arthur’s Lives of Nelson, inthe “Quarterly Review” for February, 1810. It firstappeared as a separate volume in 1813, and has passedthrough numerous editions.

IX. “ The Life of Nelson. By the Old Sailor.” 12mo.,1838,—which is the fullest collection of facts and anec-dotes relating to Nelson yet given to the Public. Everyprinted authority has been consulted, and much new in-formation inserted from the innumerable scattered Noticesin Magazines, the “ United Service Journal,” ProfessionalNewspapers, &c.