68 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



' How pleasant this is ! One could go to sleep if 

 one was not disturbed ! ' " It is especially to 

 be remarked, to the credit of the lady's sense 

 of humour, that the observation was evidently 

 retailed by herself. 



To readers of the French translation of the 

 Use of Life the following letter may be of interest 

 as explaining certain substantial differences be- 

 tween the French and English versions. 



A 13 RUE BOISSONADE, 



23rd May 1896. 



Sir — Monsieur Alcan has probably informed you 

 that he has confided me the translation into French of 

 your book, the Use of Life. He requests me to give 

 you some account of the manner in which I have imder- 

 taken and executed my task. I do so with pleasure, 

 and trust that my explanations may meet with your 

 approval. The Use of Life is to be published in French 

 as a companion volume to the two which have already 

 appeared in Le Bonheur de Vivre in the BibliotKeque 

 de philosophie contemporaine, and cannot therefore 

 exceed the average length of the other volumes of the 

 series. In order to reduce the book within the limits 

 thus absolutely imposed on me, I have been obliged to 

 suppress a certain number of passages. But in every 

 case I have kept to certain principles which will, I hope, 

 justify in your eyes the nature of the suppressions 

 made. They are briefly as follows : 



In the first place, I have invariably endeavoured to 

 respect as far as possible your text wherever it was 

 possible to do so. But certain passages, more peculiarly 

 written for an English public, were of a nature to diminish 

 rather than increase the utility and interest of the book 

 for the average French reader, whom I have constantly 

 kept before my eyes. Consequently I have suppressed : 

 in the text whatever it seemed to me necessary to reject 

 in order to prepare the book for a French public ; and 

 in the quotations such passages above all as were 

 either interesting on account of the quaint or charming 

 archaism of expressions impossible to preserve entirely 

 in French, or of secondary importance as matter, and 



