What I might myself have been, so helped, I rarely indulge in the
idleness of thinking; but what I am, since I take on me the function
of a teacher, it is well that the reader should know, as far as I
can tell him.

Not an unjust person; not an unkind one; not a false one; a lover of
order, labour, and peace. That, it seems to me, is enough to give
me right to say all I care to say on ethical subjects; more, I could
only tell definitely through details of autobiography such as none
but prosperous and (in the simple sense of the word) faultless lives
could justify;--and mine has been neither. Yet, if any one, skilled
in reading the torn manuscripts of the human soul, cares for more
intimate knowledge of me, he may have it by knowing with what
persons in past history I have most sympathy.

I will name three.

In all that is strongest and deepest in me,--that fits me for my
work, and gives light or shadow to my being, I have sympathy with
Guido Guinicelli.

In my constant natural temper, and thoughts of things and of people,
with Marmontel.

In my enforced and accidental temper, and thoughts of things and of
people, with Dean Swift.

Any one who can understand the natures of those three men, can
understand mine; and having said so much, I am content to leave both
life and work to be remembered or forgotten, as their uses may