My Life

Excerpt from My Life
It is with pleasure that I accede to the request of my English publishers, that I should address a few words to my English readers by way of introduction to the English version of my Recollections.
I imagine the purpose of memoirs is to make plain to the public the motives and circumstances which influence a man who comes to play an influential part in a certain period and sphere of action, and to contribute to a clearer comprehension of certain contemporary events.
It is my personal conviction that even the most remarkable and influential of men is more often the thing driven than the driving power; that he can do little more than help into being that which in a given state of society is pressing onward to the realisation and recognition which are essentially its due.
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