It may be said without heaitation that there is no foim of literature more certain to pique the curiosity of a reader tliui the form known as Confessions. As the world grows older, it seems that amateurs of the belles-lettres grow ever more inclined to give in their adherence to Popes dictum that the proper study of mankind is man. And hence volumes of Memoirs, of Reminiscences, ever more and more abound. But if Autobiography be a more intimate or sustained form of reminiscence, then, in their turn, Confessions are the quintessence of autobiography. For the tenn implies nothing less than the receiving of a reader into the writei sclosest confidence, than an unrnling of that writers inner self In a word, Confessions come as near to the bald human document as considerations ofthe literary art allow. A voiumeof letters may, of course, reveal much of its writers personality. But correspondence, after all, is conditioned, not only by tlie special occasion which calls it forth, but also by the character of the person to whom it is addressed. Of these conditions the writer of Confessions is independent. He wtites not for the moment, hut for the ages ;and addresses himself to no single limited human creature, but to that ideal reader who enjoys a subjective existence in the mind of every wielder of the goose-quilL Self-revelation, selfvindication, this is the sole animating purpose of the genuine writer of CoufiGS iions. For every volume of Confessions is, in truth, an A pologia. There are two principal ways of writing Confissiions, either of them consecrated by the example of a great modem master; and, given the necsary conditions, by either of these methods a fascinating volume may be produced. The first is that employed by Rousseau who, beginning with a solemn adjuration addressed to the Deity, pledges himself to truth and to the whole truth. This method, to judg
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.