, so far as I am concerned, is done with
for ever, I must take this, my first and last chance of saying,
that he is not I, either as boy or man--in fact, not to beat
about the bush, is a much braver, and nobler, and purer fellow
than I ever was.

When I first resolved to write the book, I tried to realize to
myself what the commonest type of English boy of the upper middle
class was, so far as my experience went; and to that type I have
throughout adhered, trying simply to give a good specimen of the
genus. I certainly have placed him in the country, and scenes
which I know best myself, for the simple reason, that I knew them
better than any others, and therefore was less likely to blunder
in writing about them.

As to the name, which has been, perhaps, the chief "cause of
offense," in this matter, the simple facts are, that I chose the
name "Brown," because it stood first in the trio of "Brown,
Jones, and Robinson," which had become a sort of synonym for the
middle classes of Great Britain. It happens that my own name and
that of Brown have no single letter in common. As to the
Christian name of "Tom," having chosen Brown, I could hardly help
taking it as the prefix. The two names have gone together in
England for two hundred years, and the joint name has not enjoyed
much of a reputation for respectability. This suited me exactly.
I wanted the _commonest_ name I could get, and did not want any
name which had the least heroic, or aristocratic, or even
respectable savor about it. Therefore I had a natural leaning to
the combination which I found ready to my hand. Moreover, I
believed "Tom" to be a more specially English name than John, the
only other as to which I felt the least doubt. Whether it be that
Thomas a Beckett was for so long the favorite English saint, or
from whatever other cause, it certainly seems to be the fact,
that the name "Thomas," is much commoner in England than in any
other country. The words, "tom-fool," "tom-boy," etc., though,
perhaps not complimentary to the "Tom's" of England, certainly
show how large a family they must have been. These reasons
decided me to keep the Christian name which had been always
associated with "Brown"; and I own that the fact that it happened
to be my own, never occurred to me as an objection, till the
mischief was done, past recall.

I have only, them, to say, that neither is the hero a portrait of
myself, nor is there any other portrait in either of the books,