Butler, I, 88). It seems to me that he is the worst person
also to make selections from his own notes or indeed even, in my
case, to write them. I cannot help it. They grew as, with little
disturbance, they now stand; they are not meant for publication; the
bad ones serve as bread for the jam of the good ones; it was less
trouble to let them go than to think whether they ought not to be
destroyed. The retort, however, is obvious; no thinking should have
been required in respect of many--a glance should have consigned them
to the waste-paper basket. I know it and I know that many a one of
those who look over these books--for that they will be looked over by
not a few I doubt not--will think me to have been a greater fool than
I probably was. I cannot help it. I have at any rate the
consolation of also knowing that, however much I may have irritated,
displeased or disappointed them, they will not be able to tell me so;
and I think that, to some, such a record of passing moods and
thoughts good, bad and indifferent will be more valuable as throwing
light upon the period to which it relates than it would have been if
it had been edited with greater judgment.
Besides, Vols. I and IV being already bound, I should not have enough
to form Vols. II and III if I cut out all those that ought to be cut
out. [June, 1898.]
P.S.--If I had re-read my preface to Vol.
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