it. Moreover, she who has the best right to decide, desires it. A
few merely personal matters and casual details have been omitted;
but the main substance is there, and the letters are just as they
were written. Such hurried compositions, of course, abound in
literary shortcomings, but perhaps they have a certain spontaneity
which more deliberate writings do not always possess. I wrote my
best, frankest, and liveliest in the letters, because I knew that
Herbert would value both the thought and the expression of the
thought. And, further, if it is necessary to excuse so speedy a
publication, I feel that they are not letters which would gain by
being kept. Their interest arises from the time, the circumstance,
the occasion that gave them birth, from the books read and
criticised, the educational problems discussed; and thus they may
form a species of comment on a certain aspect of modern life, and
from a definite point of view. But, after all, it is enough for me
that he appreciated them, and, if he wished that they should go out
to the world, well, let them go! In publishing them I am but
obeying a last message of love.

T. B.
MONK'S ORCHARD, UPTON,
Feb. 20, 1905.






THE UPTON LETTERS