Excerpt from My Reminiscences Once upon A time an Italian Nobleman built himself a funereal monument. On being asked why he did not leave the care of this work to his relatives after his death, he replied that he had little confidence in their taking the trouble or going to the expense of doing so. Agreeing with this Italian, I have compiled these recollections from my old journals - diaries which will probably serve to light the kitchen fire when their author has departed. 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.