[277c] Gray’s Letters, with poems and life, form 4 volumes in Macmillan’s Eversley Library, edited by Edmund Gosse.
[277d] You can obtain Southey’s Nelson, originally written for Murray’s Pocket Library as a publisher’s commission, in one well-printed volume, with Introduction by David Hannay, published by William Heinemann. It should, however, be supplemented in the Life by Captain Mahan (2 volumes, Sampson Low & Co.), or by Professor Laughton’s Nelson and His Companion in Arms (George Allen).
[277e] Moore’s Life and Letters of Byron is published by John Murray in 6 volumes. It is best purchased second-hand in an old set. Moore’s book must be supplemented by the 6 volumes of Correspondence edited by Rowland Prothero for Mr. Murray.
[278a] Sir George Trevelyan says in his Early History of Charles James Fox that Hogg’s Life of Shelley is “perhaps the most interesting book in our language that has never been republished.” The reproach has been in some slight measure removed by a cheap reprint in small type issued by the Routledges in 1906. The reader should, however, secure a copy of the first edition, 2 volumes, 1857. Professor Dowden, in his Life of Shelley, 1886, uses the book freely.
[278b] “What is the best book you have ever read?” Emerson is said to have asked George Eliot when she was about twenty-two years of age and residing, unknown, near Coventry. “Rousseau’s Confessions,” was the reply. “I agree with you,” Emerson answered. But the book should not be read in a translation. The completest translation is one in 2 volumes published by Nicholls. There is a more abridged translation by Gibbons in 4 volumes.
[278c] The Life of Carlyle, by James Anthony Froude, which created so much controversy upon its publication, is worthy of a cheap edition, which does not, however, seem to be forthcoming. The book appeared in 4 volumes, The First Forty Years in 1882 and Life in London in 1884. It had been preceded by Reminiscences in 1881. Every one should read the Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle, 3 volumes, 1883. All the 9 volumes are published by the Longmans.
[279a] Samuel Rogers’ Table Talk has been given us in two forms, first as Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers, edited by Alexander Dyce, 1856, and second as Reminiscences of Samuel Rogers, 1859. The Recollections were reprinted in handsome form by H. A. Rogers, of New Southgate, in 1887, and the material was combined in a single volume in 1903 by G. H. Powell (R. Brimley Johnson). I have the four books, and delight in the many good stories they contain.
[279b] The Confessions of St. Augustine may be commended in many small and handy editions. One, with an Introduction by Alice Meynell, was published in 1900. The most beautifully printed modern edition is that issued by Arthur Humphreys in his Classical Series.
[279c] Amiel’s Journal is a fine piece of introspection. A translation by Mrs. Humphry Ward is published in 2 volumes by the Macmillans. De Senancour’s Obermann, translated by A. E. Waite (Wellby), should be read in this connexion.
[279d] The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated by George Long, appears as a volume of Bohn’s Library, and more beautifully printed in the Library of Arthur Humphreys. There are many other good translations—one by John Jackson, issued in 1906 by the Clarendon Press, has great merit.