112 Thanks to My Friends [ l 9°A 



retreat alone. It is, however, not possible for me, in the present volume, 

 to avoid all reference to those evil hours, seeing that they have covered 

 so large a section of my later years. It has been fortunate for me 

 that, however often pain has incapacitated me physically during the last 

 decade of my life, it has always left my mind its full vigour, and 

 allowed me to continue, with rare interruptions, its long acquired habit 

 of setting down my daily record in these diaries. So far, indeed, has 

 this been the case that during the years 1904 and 1905 I actually 

 got through more literary work than in any other half dozen years 

 of middle life. The necessity of bodily inaction forced me into ac- 

 tivities of another sort which, in their turn, enabled me to survive. 

 For this I thank a kindly Providence and the persistent devotion of 

 not a few untiring friends who encouraged me to work, and working 

 to live on. 



