VI PREFACE
allowed to leave real marks upon our course, or upon our present state."
And besides this, Time is always apt to paint the long-ago in fresh colours, making what was nothing less than anguish at the time quite light and trivial in the retrospect; sweeping over and effacing the greater number of griefs, joys, and friendships; though ever and anon picking out some unexpected point as a fixed and lasting landmark. " Le Temps, vieillard divin, honore et blanchit tout."
Many, doubtless, who read these pages, may themselves recollect, or may remember having heard others give, a very different impression of the persons described. But, as the old Italian proverb says, " Every bird sings its own note," and I only give my own opinion. Pope reminds us that —
ei 'T is with our judgments as our watches — none Go just alike — yet each believes his own."
And after all, "De mortuis omnia" is perhaps a wholesomer motto than " Nil nisi bonum," and if people believed it would be acted upon, their lives would often be different. While one is just, however, one ought to remember that nothing can be more touching or pathetic than the helplessness of the dead. " Speak of me as I am," says Othello, " nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."
Since I have latterly seen more of what is usually called " the world " — the little world which considers the great world its satellite — and of the different