The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Autobiography, by F. Max Mueller

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Title: My Autobiography
A Fragment

Author: F. Max Mueller

Release Date: October 16, 2009 [EBook #30269]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

[Illustration: _F. Max Mueller Aged 4._]

MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

A FRAGMENT

BY THE

RT. HON. PROFESSOR F. MAX MUeLLER, K.M.

_WITH PORTRAITS_

New York
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1901

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK

PREFACE

For some years past my father had, in the intervals of more serious
work, occupied his leisure moments in jotting down reminiscences of
his early life. In 1898 and 1899 he issued the two volumes of _Auld
Lang Syne_, which contained recollections of his friends, but very
little about his own life and career. In the Introductory Chapter to
the Autobiography he explains fully the reasons which led him, at his
advanced age, to undertake the task of writing his own Life, and he
began, but alas! too late, to gather together the fragments that he
had written at different times. But even during the last two years of
his life, and after the first attack of the illness which finally
proved fatal, he would not devote himself entirely to what he
considered mere recreation, as can be seen from such a work as his
_Six Systems of Indian Philosophy_ published in May, 1889, and from
the numerous articles which continued to appear up to the very time of
his death.

During the last weeks of his life, when we all knew that the end could
not be far off, the Autobiography was constantly in his thoughts, and
his great desire was to leave as much as possible ready for
publication. Even when he was lying in bed far too weak to sit up in a
chair, he continued to work at the manuscript with me. I would read
portions aloud to him, and he would suggest alterations and dictate
additions. I see that we were actually at work on