Essays on Life 



worse thing should happen to me. Besides, I 

 have a great respect for my namesake, and 

 always say that if "Erewhon" had been a 

 racehorse it would have been got by " Hudi- 

 bras " out of " Analogy." Some one said this 

 to me many years ago, and I felt so much 

 flattered that I have been repeating the re- 

 mark as my own ever since. 



But how small are these grievances as com- 

 pared with those endured without a murmur 

 by hundreds of writers far more deserving 

 than myself. When I see the scores and 

 hundreds of workers in the reading-room who 

 have done so much more than I have, but 

 whose work is absolutely fruitless to them- 

 selves, and when I think of the prompt recog- 

 nition obtained by my own work, I ask 

 myself what I have done to be thus rewarded. 

 On the other hand, the feeling that I have 

 succeeded far beyond my deserts hitherto, 

 makes it all the harder for me to acquiesce 

 without complaint in the extinction of a 

 career which I honestly believe to be a pro- 

 mising one ; and once more I repeat that, 

 unless the Museum authorities give me back 



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