Excerpt from "Virginibus Puerisque" And Other Papers; Memories and Portraits; Familiar Studies of Men and Books We are all busy in this world building Towers of Babel; and the child of our imaginations is always a Changeling when it comes from nurse. This is not only true in the greatest, as of wars and folios, but in the least also, like the trifling volume in your hand. Thus I began to write these papers with a defi nite end: I was to be the Advocatus, not I hope Diaboli, but Juventutis, ' I was to state temperately the beliefs of youth as Opposed to the contentions of age; to go over all the field where the two differ, and produce at last a little volume of special pleadings, which I might call, without misnomer, Life at Twenty five. But times kept changing, and I shared in the change. I clung hard to that entrancing age; but, with the best will, no man can be twenty-five forever. The old, ruddy convictions deserted me, and, along with them, the style that fits their presentation and defence. I saw, and indeed my friends in formed me, that the game was up. A good part Of the volume would answer to the long-projected title; but the shadows Of the prison-house are on the rest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.