If my object in these pages were to present a complete scheme of counsels and maxims for the guidance of life I should have to repeat the numerous rules some of them excellent which have been drawn up by thinkers of all ages from Theognis and Solomon1 down to La Rochefoucauld; and in so doing I should inevitably entail upon the reader a vast amount of well-worn commonplace. But the fact is that in this work I make still less claim to exhaust my subject than in any other of my writings.

1 [I refer to the proverbs and maxims ascribed in the Old Testament to the king of that name.]

An author who makes no claims to completeness must also in a great measure abandon any attempt at systematic arrangement. For his double loss in this respect the reader may console himself by reflecting that a complete and systematic treatment of such a subject as the guidance of life could hardly fail to be a very wearisome business. I have simply put down those of my thoughts which appear to be worth communicating thoughts which as far as I know have not been uttered or at any rate not just in the same form by any one else; so that my remarks may be taken as a supplement to what has been already achieved in the immense field.