Nulla dies sine linea. Let that
be their motto. And let their work be to them as is his common work
to the common labourer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary.
He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours
at his desk without moving,--as men have sat, or said that they
have sat. More than nine-tenths of my literary work has been done
in the last twenty years, and during twelve of those years I followed
another profession. I have never been a slave to this work, giving
due time, if not more than due time, to the amusements I have loved.
But I have been constant,--and constancy in labour will conquer
all difficulties. Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo.
It may interest some if I state that during the last twenty years
I have made by literature something near (pounds)70,000. As I have said
before in these pages, I look upon the result as comfortable, but
not splendid.
It will not, I trust, be supposed by any reader that I have intended
in this so-called autobiography to give a record of my inner life.
No man ever did so truly,--and no man ever will. Rousseau probably
attempted it, but who doubts but that Rousseau has confessed
in much the thoughts and convictions rather than the facts of his
life? If the rustle of a woman's petticoat has ever stirred my
blood; if a cup of wine has been a joy to me; if I have thought
tobacco at midnight in pleasant company to be one of the elements
of an earthly paradise; if now and again I have somewhat recklessly
fluttered a (pounds)5 note over a card-table;--of what matter is that to
any reader? I have betrayed no woman.
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