But this is not all. Though I pay a
certain homage to chronology and let my chapters mainly follow the
years, I am in this matter not too strict. Throughout, I obey the
instinct of the journalist and take good copy wherever I can find it. I
follow the scent while it is hot and do not say to myself or to my
readers that this or that would be out-of-place here, and must be
deferred to such and such a chapter, or to some portion of the book
giving an account of later years, devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes! In
a word, I am discursive not by accident, but by design.
If I am asked why I make this apologia, I shall have no difficulty in
replying. I desire to leave nothing unsaid which may bring me into
intimate touch with the greatest reading public that the world has ever
seen-and, to my mind, a public as worthy as it is great.
J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
May 5, 1922
POSTSCRIPT TO AMERICAN PREFACE
_While this book and preface is going through the press, I cannot
resist adding a Postscript on a point suggested by my publisher. It is
that I should say something which may inform the new generation as to
"The Spectator's" position during the Civil War.
"The Spectator" was as strong a friend of America in past years as it is
at present, and in those past years its friendship was the more useful
because the need for a true understanding between all parts of the
English-speaking race was not realised by nearly so many people as it is
now.
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