"
In selecting such passages as I have in these letters I have necessarily
followed my own taste, and taste--as I said when I first began writing
to you--is illusive. I could do no more than cite that which makes my
own heart beat faster from a compelling sense of its nobility and
beauty.
When I was young, Antony, I lived long in my father's house among his
twelve thousand books, with his scholarly mind as my companion, and
his exact memory as my guide; for more than a quarter of a century
since those days I have lived in the more modest library of my own
collecting, and have long learnt how much fine literature there is that I
have never read, and now can never read. But, Antony, you may not
find, in these crowded days, even so much time for reading, or so much
repose for study as I have found, and therefore it is that I have offered
you in these letters the preferences of my lifetime, even though it has
been the lifetime of one who makes no claim to be a literary authority.
As you look back at those from whom you have sprung, you will see
that for five generations they have been men of letters--many
distinguished, and one world-famous; and though I myself am but a
puny link in the chain, yet I may perhaps afford you the opportunity
of hitching your wagon by and by to the star that has for so long ruled
the destinies of our house.
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