Project Gutenberg's The Upton Letters, by Arthur Christopher Benson

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Title: The Upton Letters

Author: Arthur Christopher Benson

Posting Date: August 18, 2009 [EBook #4615]
Release Date: November, 2003
First Posted: February 19, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE UPTON LETTERS

By

ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON

aedae muri' eseidon oneirata, koudepo aos.

1905

PREFACE

These letters were returned to me, shortly after the death of the
friend to whom they were written, by his widow. It seems that he had
been sorting and destroying letters and papers a few days before his
wholly unexpected end. "We won't destroy these," he had said to her,
holding the bulky packet of my letters in his hand; "we will keep them
together. T---- ought to publish them, and, some day, I hope he will."
This was not, of course, a deliberate judgement; but his sudden death,
a few days later, gives the unconsidered wish a certain sanctity, and I
have determined to obey it. Moreover, she who has the best right to
decide, desires it. A few merely personal matters and casual details
have been omitted; but the main substance is there, and the letters are
just as they were written. Such hurried compositions, of course, abound
in literary shortcomings, but perhaps they have a certain spontaneity
which more deliberate writings do not always possess. I wrote my best,
frankest, and liveliest in the letters, because I knew that Herbert
would value both the thought and the expression of the thought. And,
further, if it is necessary to excuse so speedy a publication, I feel
that they are not letters which would gain by being kept. Their
interest arises from the time, the circumstance, the occasion that gave
them birth, from the books read and criticised, the educational
problems discussed; and thus they may form a species of comment on a
certain aspect of modern life, and from a definite point of view. But,
after all, it is enough for me that he appreciated them, and, if he
wished that t