At the Century Club a friend very kindly and hesitatingly ventured to
suggest to me that I should get some one to go over my MS. before
printing; a judicious editor, he said, would have prevented me from
printing many a bit which, it seemed to him, was written too recklessly
and offhand. The fact is that the more reckless and random a passage
appears to be, the more carefully it has been submitted to friends and
considered and re-considered; without the support of friends I should
never have dared to print one half of what I have printed.
I am not one of those who can repeat the General Confession unreservedly.
I should say rather:
“I have left unsaid much that I am sorry I did not say, but I have said
little that I am sorry for having said, and I am pretty well on the
whole, thank you.”