Part 14 (1/1)

It will not, I a my boast as to quantity, I have endeavoured to lay clai of books, quantity without quality is a vice and a misfortune, has been too manifestly settled to leave a doubt on such a matter But I do lay clai diligence in my profession And I lory, but for the benefit of those whomay intend to follow the same career _Nulla dies sine linea_ Let that be their motto

And let their work be to theantic efforts will then be necessary He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours at his desk without ,--as men have sat, or said that they have sat More than nine-tenths of my literary work has been done in the last twenty years, and during twelve of those years I followed another profession I have never been a slave to this work, giving due time, if not more than due time, to the amusements I have loved But I have been constant,--and constancy in labour will conquer all difficulties _Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo_

Itthe last twenty years I havenear 70,000 As I have said before in these pages, I look upon the result as comfortable, but not splendid

It will not, I trust, be supposed by any reader that I have intended in this so-called autobiography to give a record of my inner life

No man ever did so truly,--and no man ever will Rousseau probably attempted it, but who doubts but that Rousseau has confessed in hts and convictions rather than the facts of his life? If the rustle of a woman's petticoat has ever stirred my blood; if a cup of wine has been a joy to ht in pleasant company to be one of the eleain I have somewhat recklessly fluttered a 5 note over a card-table;--of what matter is that to any reader? I have betrayed no wohtthat I have loved, rather than the habit

I have never desired to win money, and I have lost none To enjoy the excitement of pleasure, but to be free from its vices and ill effects,--to have the sweet, and leave the bitter untasted,--that has been my study The preachers tell us that this is impossible It seems to me that hitherto I have succeeded fairly well I will not say that I have never scorched a finger,--but I carry no ugly wounds

For what remains to me of life I trust forthat when the power of work be over with me, Godto my view, there can be no joy; secondly, to the love of those who love me; and then to , is a great blessing Could I remember, as some men do, what I read, I should have been able to call myself an educatedis always left,--so sufficient to preserve the taste for more I am inclined to think that it is so withaside the Latin classics, I have found lish dramatists,--not from any excessive love of their work, which often irritates me by its want of truth to nature, even while it sha their plots and exaer, I shall, I think, leave in my copies of these dramatists, down to the close of James I, written criticisms on every play No one who has not looked closely into it kno many there are

Now I stretch out my hand, and from the further shore I bid adieu to all who have cared to read any a the many words that I have written