n to me. Let my excuse for revealing so complimentary a
letter be that it justifies the hopes and aspirations expressed in the
course of my narrative, and shows them to be well on the way to
accomplishment.

95 IRVING STREET, CAMBRIDGE,
January 17, 1910.

DEAR BEERS:

Your exegesis of my farewell in my last note to you was erroneous,
but I am glad it occurred, because it brought me the extreme
gratification of your letter of yesterday.

You are the most responsive and recognizant of human beings, my
dear Beers, and it "sets me up immensely" to be treated by a
practical man on practical grounds as you treat me. I inhabit such
a realm of abstractions that I only get credit for what I do in
that spectral empire; but you are not only a moral idealist and
philanthropic enthusiast (and good fellow!), but a tip-top man of
business in addition; and to have actually done anything that the
like of you can regard as having helped him is an unwonted ground
with me for self-gratulation. I think that your tenacity of
purpose, foresight, tact, temper, discretion and patience, are
beyond all praise, and I esteem it an honor to have been in any
degree associated with you. Your name will loom big hereafter, for
your movement must prosper, but mine will not survive unless some
other kind of effort of mine saves it.

I am exceedingly glad of what you say of the Connecticut Society.
May it prosper abundantly!

I thank you for your affectionate words which I return with
interest and remain, for I trust many years of this life,

Yours faithfully,

WM. JAMES.

At this point, rather than in the dusty corners of the usual preface, I
wish to express my obligation to Herbert Wescott Fisher, whom I knew at
school. It was he who led me to see my need of technical training,
neglected in earlier years. To be exact, however, I must confess that I
read rather than studied rhetoric. Close application to its rules
served only to discourage me, so I but lazily skimmed the pages of the
works which he recommended. But my friend did more than direct me to
sources. He proved to be the kindly mean between the two extremes of
stranger and intimate. I was a prophet not without honor in his eyes.
Upon an embarrassing wealth of material he brought to bear his
practical knowledge of the workmanship of writing; and my drafting of
the later parts and su