My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

394 MY LIFEme in this house—an Autobiography extending overthree-quarters of a century— is admirably describedby the word " Retrospection," And the whole of thisprocess has involved, or been the result of, continuousand pleasurable " Work."I will only add here that during the whole of this" third chapter of my life " I had entirely forgotten theparticular words of the prediction which I had noteddown at the time, and was greatly surprised, on referringto them again for the purpose of this chapter, tofind how curiously they fitted the subsequent events.Of course it may be said that every one who reaches myage enjoys " retrospection," but that kind of generallooking back to the past is very different from thedetailed Retrospection I have had to make insearchingout the many long- forgotten incidents and detailsof my varied life, as here recorded ;and the Work thishas involved, and the Satisfaction I have had inwriting it, seem fully to justify the solemn emphasiswith which the prediction was made.Thus far I had written in " My Life," the proofs ofwhich passed out of my hands in September, 1905,and I never contemplated that anything more wouldhappen to me which would add force and completenessto the fulfilment above recorded. But two thingsof that nature have happened, both totally unexpected,and in themselves very unlikely, and in neither casewas my action in any degree influenced by thethought that they did serve to fulfil more exactlywhat had been predicted. So much was this the casethat this point of view did not occur to me till Icame to read again the last pages of " My Life " forthe purposes of this edition.I will first mention, however, that the whole period