Page:Diary, reminiscences, and correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, Volume 1.djvu/10

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Rogers and Wordsworth. On the recommendation of the latter, Mr. Robinson laid special stress, for he said, "Wordsworth must be aware that there are many interesting particulars respecting himself, which I should wish to preserve, if I preserved anything." And the recommendation was, therefore, interpreted as a sanction to including these particulars with those relating to Goethe, Wieland, and others. To his executors, Mr. Robinson used to say, "If you were to print all that you find," (referring to the Reminiscences) "I should think you would show great want of judgment; and I should think the same if you came to the conclusion that there is nothing worth printing." About six weeks before his death, he met Mr. Macmillan, the publisher of these volumes, who, as they were going down to lunch, gave him his arm, and on the stairs said, "Mr. Robinson, I wonder that you have never been induced to undertake some great literary work." Mr. Robinson stopped, and placing his hand on Mr. Macmillan's shoulder, answered, "It is because I am a wise man. I early found that I had not the literary ability to give me such a place among English authors as I should have desired; but I thought that I had an opportunity of gaining a knowledge of many of the most distinguished men of the age, and that I might do some good by keeping a record of my interviews with them." And writing to his brother in 1842, he said, "When you complain of my not being so copious as I ought on such occasions, you only remind me of what I am already sufficiently aware, and that I want in an eminent degree the Boswell faculty. With his excellent