The relationship, between reader and writer, of son and father, may have existed in Queen Elizabeth's time, but is much too close to be true for ours. The utmost that any writer could hope of his readers now is that they should consent to regard themselves as nephews, and even then he would expect only a more or less civil refusal from most of them. Indeed, if he had reached a certain age, he would have observed that nephews, as a social class, no longer read at all, and that there is only one familiar instance recorded of a nephew who read his uncle. The exception tends rather to support the...

The relationship, between reader and writer, of son and father, may have existed in Queen Elizabeth's time, but is much too close to be true for ours. The utmost that any writer could hope of his readers now is that they should consent to regard themselves as nephews, and even then he would expect only a more or less civil refusal from most of them. Indeed, if he had reached a certain age, he would have observed that nephews, as a social class, no longer read at all, and that there is only one familiar instance recorded of a nephew who read his uncle. The exception tends rather to support the...

An unabridged edition (1918) with preface by Henry Cabot Lodge; chapters include: Quincy (1838-1848) - Boston (1848-1854) - Washington (1850-1854) - Harvard College (1854-1858) - Berlin (1858-1859) - Rome (1859-1860) - Treason (1860-1861) - Diplomacy (1861) - Foes or Friends (1862) - Political Morality (1862) - The Battle of the Rams (1863) - Eccentricity (1863) - The Perfection of Human Society (1864) - Dilettantism (1865-1866) - Darwinism (1867-1868) - The Press (1868) - President Grant (1869) - Free Fight (1869-1870) - Chaos (1870) - Failure (1871) - Twenty Years After (1892) - Chicago...