Page:Diary, reminiscences, and correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, Volume 1.djvu/11



Rh memory and tact, had I early in life set about following his example, I might, beyond all doubt, have supplied a few volumes superior in value to his 'Johnson,' though they would not have been so popular. Certainly the names recorded in his great work are not so important as Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Wieland, the Duchesses Amelia and Louisa of Weimar, and Tieck—as Madame de Stael, La Fayette, Abbé Grégoire, Benjamin Constant—as Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Lamb, Rogers, Hazlitt, Mrs. Barbauld, Clarkson, &c. &c. &c., for I could add a great number of minor stars. And yet what has come of all this? Nothing. What will come of it? Perhaps nothing."

From the year 1811 the Diary is entitled to the most prominent place. The Reminiscences were not begun till Mr. Robinson had nearly reached three score years and ten; and even if they had been written in the freshness of his memory, and in the fulness of his mental vigour, they would still hardly have had equal value with the daily record, which breathes the air of the scenes and incidents to which it relates.

In the execution of his task, the Editor has kept two objects especially in view; first, to preserve interesting particulars respecting distinguished men, both in England and on the Continent; and, secondly, to keep unbroken the thread of Mr. Robinson's own life. One reason why the materials were put into his hands rather than those of one possessing more literary experience was, that he had been himself a student at German Universities, and was interested in German literature; but the chief reason was that, from various