{"product_id":"2940013740488","title":"A Backward Glance","description":"Years ago I said to myself: \"There's no such thing as old age; there is\u003cbr\u003eonly sorrow.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have learned with the passing of time that this, though true, is not\u003cbr\u003ethe whole truth. The other producer of old age is habit: the deathly\u003cbr\u003eprocess of doing the same thing in the same way at the same hour day\u003cbr\u003eafter day, first from carelessness, then from inclination, at last from\u003cbr\u003ecowardice or inertia. Luckily the inconsequent life is not the only\u003cbr\u003ealternative; for caprice is as ruinous as routine. Habit is necessary;\u003cbr\u003eit is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that\u003cbr\u003emust be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn spite of illness, in spite even of the arch-enemy sorrow, one CAN\u003cbr\u003eremain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is\u003cbr\u003eunafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in\u003cbr\u003ebig things, and happy in small ways. In the course of sorting and\u003cbr\u003esetting down of my memories I have learned that these advantages are\u003cbr\u003eusually independent of one's merits, and that I probably owe my happy\u003cbr\u003eold age to the ancestor who accidentally endowed me with these\u003cbr\u003equalities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnother advantage (equally accidental) is that I do not remember long to\u003cbr\u003ebe angry. I seldom forget a bruise to the soul--who does? But life puts\u003cbr\u003ea quick balm on it, and it is recorded in a book I seldom open. Not long\u003cbr\u003eago I read a number of reviews of a recently published autobiography.\u003cbr\u003eAll the reviewers united in praising it on the score that here at last\u003cbr\u003ewas an autobiographer who was not afraid to tell the truth! And what\u003cbr\u003egave the book this air of truthfulness? Simply the fact that the\u003cbr\u003ememorialist \"spared no one,\" set down in detail every defect and\u003cbr\u003eabsurdity in others, and every resentment in the writer. That was the\u003cbr\u003ekind of autobiography worth reading!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJudged by that standard mine, I fear, will find few readers. I have not\u003cbr\u003eescaped contact with the uncongenial; but the antipathy they aroused was\u003cbr\u003eusually reciprocal, and this simplified and restricted our intercourse.\u003cbr\u003eNor do I remember that these unappreciative persons ever marked their\u003cbr\u003elack of interest in me by anything more harmful than indifference. I\u003cbr\u003erecall no sensational grievances. Everywhere on my path I have met with\u003cbr\u003ekindness and furtherance; and from the few dearest to me an exquisite\u003cbr\u003eunderstanding. It will be seen, then, that in telling my story I have\u003cbr\u003ehad to make the best of unsensational material; and if what I have to\u003cbr\u003etell interests my readers, that merit at least will be my own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMadame Swetchine, that eminent Christian, was once asked how she managed\u003cbr\u003eto feel Christianly toward her enemies. She looked surprised. \"Un\u003cbr\u003eennemi? Mais de tous les accidents c'est le plus rare!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo I have found it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeveral chapters of this book have already appeared in the \"Atlantic\u003cbr\u003eMonthly\" and \"The Ladies' Home Journal.\" I have also to thank Sir John\u003cbr\u003eMurray for kindly permitting me to incorporate in the book two or three\u003cbr\u003epassages from an essay on Henry James, published in \"The Quarterly\u003cbr\u003eReview\" of July 1920 and the Editor of \"The Colophon\" for the use of a\u003cbr\u003efew paragraphs on the writing of \"Ethan Frome.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070245585136,"sku":"2940013740488","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740488_p0.jpg?v=1763589620","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740488","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}