It may perhaps be said that sometimes I wrote too rapidly, and
that sometimes I became garrulous. Is it my fault that I am old?
Is it my fault that, like Ulysses, I have seen the manners and
customs of many cities? Am I therefore blamable for writing a
little bit of autobiography? Let the reader, however, remember
that I do not inflict my political memoirs on him, which he would
have to read, as he has many others, since during the last thirty
years I have been exactly in the position to see great men and
great things.

Let no one assign me a place among compilers; had I been reduced
thus low, I would have laid down my pen, and would not have lived
less happily.

I said, like Juvenal:

"Semper ego auditor tantum! nunquamne reponam!"

and those who know me will easily see that used to the tumult of
society and to the silence of the study I had to take advantage of
both one and the other of these positions.

I did too many things which pleased me particularly; I was able to
mention many friends who did not expect me to do so, and recalled
some pleasant memories; I seized on others which would have
escaped, and, as we say familiarly, took my coffee.

It may be a single reader may in some category exclaim,----"I
wished to know if----." "What was he thinking of," etc., etc. I am