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[Illustration: W.J. Stillman]
1901
That a man should assume that his life is worth the venture ofa record in the form of an autobiography suggests a degree ofself-conceit of which I am not guilty. From my own initiative thiswould never have been written, and the first suggestion that I shouldwrite it, coming from a man of such experience in books and judgmentof men as the late Mr. Houghton, then head of the firm of Houghton,Mifflin & Co., was as much a surprise to me as the publication willbe to any one. The impression it made on me was so vivid that I havenever forgotten the details of the occasion which called it out. I hadgone with Mr. Houghton and his daughters to the ruins of the Villa ofHadrian, at Tivoli, and, wandering idly amongst them on a beautifulautumn morning, not in the spirit of crude sightseeing, I was led totalk of my experiences more than is my wont to do. "You should writeyour life," he said to me with a manner of authority which at onceconvinced me, and I decided that if there should come in my life apause in which the past could be considered rather than the needs ofthe present and the cares of the future, I would set about it. HadI at some earlier date entertained such a project, I should havepreserved many documents and data now lost, and have been able towrite more precisely of some things of greater interest than mypersonal adventures. But in that part of my life which may beconsidered relatively of a public character, or in which events of apublic interest occurred, I have ample record made at the time. Inwhat is peculiar to myself, and so of relatively trivial moment, datesand the order of events are of little importance. It occurred to me inthe connection, that to give a human document of Puritan family life,and the development of a mind from the archaic severity of New EnglandPuritanism to a complete freedom of thought, by a purely evolutionaryprocess, without revolt or revulsion, might be worth doing. For whatit is worth I have done it without much consideration of my owndignity, and, candidly, not as to my blunders and peccadilloes, whichare of no importance to the story, but as to the earlier mentalconditions which were a part of the process. So much for thepersonality.
Orthodox journalists may object to my assumption of their title. In mymultifarious occupation and random life I have, as I see when I lookback found my highest activity, and rendered my most serious servicesto others, in my occupation as a journalist—all the rest was fringeor failure. If I have been good for anything it was in connectionwith, or through my position on, the press. And it would be ungratefuland dishonest if I should omit to bear my testimony to the noblecharacter and large sincerity of the great journal to which the mostof my strength for more than twenty years has been given. If everI had a noble impulse, aroused by wrongs that came to my knowledgeduring those years, a good cause to defend, or a public abuse toattack, "The Times" has never refused to give me room to tell mystory, nor have I ever been expected to conform my views to those ofthe office, or shape my correspondence to any ulterior purpose; norhave I ever done so. And I consider it the greatest honor that hasever come to me to have been so many years in its service, and to havemaintained the co