Book Description

Excerpt from Letters From Across the Sea: 1907-1908 This is not a guide-book. Hand-books of travel are useful in their place but uncommonly dull reading. These are not the letters of a man who saw a lot of things for the first time and forthwith conceived that he had discovered them\and must needs reveal them to others. Of such books there are not a few - in point of fact too many save from the standpoint of the printer. These are the letters of a cultured, f ar-travelled man to members of his own family, written with that inti macy which involves freedom and candor and with the intent of revealing to somehextent his heart, mind, and soul to absent loved ones. Lthey are also of interest be cause they form a Viewpoint of one who in his time has played many parts in the development of his own coun try along the lines of greatest resistance. The captains of industry in this country are of two kinds: those who take a wholly objective view of life and those others who possess the introspective mind. To accomplish any great deed it is necessary to be gifted with imagination, but many possess it for mere material purposes. I think any one who reads these letters will note that the writer has the power of critical analysis in an unusualdegree; that he sees beneath the surface of things and has found richness in the Old World because he took riches of the mind with him. Some men simply see stones and others find in them a sermon. Some find in the running brooks only possi bilities of commercial development and others read there a book. In the last analysis, we get just as much out of life as we put into it. I think that these letters with all their charm' of personal intimacy, their keenness of per ception, and their largeness of view betray an unusual literary quality. This is because the writer thinks clearly. No other equipment is necessary. It is the beginning and ending of style. The reader will note here some new angles of perspective although they cover for the most part main-travelled roads. He will be interested not in the things themselves so much as in the point of View of the writer. It is the personal note that gives them charm and value, and human personality lies at the bottom of our interest in everything. 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.