Release date : July 1, [eBook ] Most recently updated: December 26, If we often blunder and fail for want of perfect wisdom and clear light, have we not the inward assurance that our aspiration has not been all in vain, that it has brought us a little nearer to the Supreme Intellect whose effulgence draws us while it dazzles? About twelve years ago my husband told me that he had begun to write an Autobiography intended for publication, but not during his lifetime. He worked upon it at intervals, as his literary engagements permitted, but I found after his sudden death that he had only been able to carry it as far as his twenty-fourth year.
Such a fragment seemed too brief for separate publication, and I earnestly desired to supplement it by a Memoir, and thus to give to those who knew and loved his books a more complete understanding of his character and career. But though I longed for this satisfaction and solace, the task seemed beyond my power, especially as it involved the difficulty of writing in a foreign language. Considering, however, that the Autobiography was carried, as it happened, up to the date of our marriage, and that I could therefore relate all the subsequent life from intimate knowledge, as no one else could, I was encouraged by many of Mr.
Hamerton's admirers to make the attempt, and with the great and untiring help of his best friend, Mr. Seeley, I have been enabled to complete the Memoirโsuch as it is. I offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Sidney Colvin and to his co-executor for having allowed the insertion of Mr. Stevenson's letters; to Mr. Watts, Mr. Peter Graham, and Mr. Burlingame for their own. I also beg Mr. Palmer to accept the expression of my gratitude for his kind permission to use as a frontispiece to this book the fine photograph taken by him.
My reasons for writing an Autobiography. My birthplace. My childhood is passed at Barnley with my aunts. A tour in Wales in A painful chapter to write. My extreme loneliness. Dislike to Shaw in consequence of the dreadful life I lead there with my father. Cape and his usher. Early attempts in English verse. Early interest in theology. Cape's health. My education becomes less satisfactory. My elder uncle. Interest in the Middle Ages. Edward Alexander of Halifax.
Political and religious opinions of my relations. James Bardsley. First visit to London in The lore of reading a hindrance to classical studies. Butler becomes anxious about my success at Oxford. Choice of a profession. A journal. Ruskin's influence. A project for studying in Paris. London again. Acquaintance with R. Leslie, R. A Visit to Rogers. Miss Marian Evans. Rowan and her daughter. Some of my relations emigrate to New Zealand. Resignation of commission in the militia.
