DEAR SON,
I HAVE ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my
ancestors. You may remember the enquiries I made among the remains of my
relations when you were with me in England and the journey I undertook for that
purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to learn the circumstances
of my life—many of which you are yet unacquainted with—and expecting the
enjoyment of a week’s uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I
sit down to write them for you. Besides, there are some other inducements that
excite me to this undertaking. From the poverty and obscurity in which I was
born and in which I passed my earliest years, I have raised myself to a state of
affluence and some degree of celebrity in the world. As constant good fortune
has accompanied me even to an advanced period of life, my posterity will perhaps
be desirous of learning the means, which I employed, and which, thanks to
Providence, so well succeeded with me. They may also deem them fit to be
imitated, should any of them find themselves in similar circumstances. This good
fortune, when I reflected on it, which is frequently the case, has induced me
sometimes to say that, if it were left to my choice, I should have no objection
to go over the same life from its beginning to the end, only asking the
advantage authors have of correcting in a second edition the faults of the
first. So would I also wish to change some incidents of it for others more
favourable. Notwithstanding, if this condition were denied, I should still
accept the offer. But as this repetition is not to be expected, that which
resembles most living one’s life over again, seems to be to recall all the
circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record
them in writing. In thus employing myself I shall yield to the inclination so
natural to old men of talking of themselves and their own actions, and I shall
indulge it, without being tiresome to those who, from respect to my age, might
conceive themselves obliged to listen to me, since they will be always free to
read me or not. And lastly I may as well confess it, as the denial of it would
be believed by nobody I shall perhaps not a little gratify my own vanity.
Indeed, I never heard or saw the introductory words, “Without vanity I may say,”
etc., but some vain thing immediately followed. Many people dislike vanity in
others whatever share they have of it themselves, but I give it fair quarter
wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to
the possessor and to others who are within his sphere of action. And therefore,
in many cases it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for
his vanity among the other comforts of life.
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