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FOREWORD 5
I have said that the editor of the Athenaum^
in my time, was a charming and accomplished
writer ; he is also my very good friend and
too generous critic, and I should be a wretch
if I did not love him. But on the evening
when a weekly paper goes to press, when the
pages are pouring in, and some one, as likely
as not, is waiting at the Cafe Royal, even the
most cultivated and considerate of editors will
be an editor. Wherefore I must now plague
you and my readers with a word or two in
explanation of my method of correction and
revision. Re-reading these articles some of
which were written nine or ten years ago
I come on such phrases as " this is a notable
achievement," " his is equipment not really
strong," and I wonder, of course, what the
devil I did say. No doubt it was something
definite and particular,
for in those days I was
but what subtle
a most conscientious writer ;
limitation, what delicately suggested reference,
what finely qualifying phrase, what treasure of
my critical nonage lies buried beneath this
"
getting out " formula I cannot now remember.
I read the article again and again but I want
the courage and energy to read again the book
about which it was written. And, if I did,
should I recapture precisely what I thought
or felt and tried, by means of that lost clause
or sentence, not to leave ?
quite unexpressed