One Day A sequel to \'Three Weeks\'
FOREWORD TO MY AMERICAN FRIENDS Now after spending some very pleasant weeks in your interesting country, I feel sure that this book will find many sympathetic readers in America. Quite naturally it will be discussed; some, doubtless, will censure it--and unjustly; others will believe with me that the tale teaches a great moral lesson. Born as the Boy was born, the end which Fate forced upon him, to me, was inevitable. Each word and act of the three weeks of his parents' love-idyl must reflect in the character and life of the child. Little by little the baby King grew before my mental vision until I saw at last there was no escape from his importunity and I allowed the insistent Boy--masterful even from his inception--to shape himself at his own sweet will. Thus he became the hero of my study. This is not a book for children or fools--but for men and women who can grasp the underlying principle of morality which has been uppermost in my mind as I wrote. Those who can see beyond the outburst of passion--the overmastering belief in the power of love to justify all
In early manhood, as Mr. Bolton began to come in actual contact with
the world, the remains of early states of innocence and sympathy
with others came back, as we have intimated, upon him, and he acted,
in many instances, with a generous disregard of self. But as he bent
his mind more and more earnestly to the accumulation of money, these
feelings had less and less influence over him. And as dollar after
dollar was added to his store, his interest in the welfare of others
grew less and less active. Early friendships were gradually
forgotten, and the first natural desire to see early friends
prosperous like himself, gradually died out. "Every man for
himself," became the leading principle of his life; and he acted
upon it on all occasions. In taking a pew in church and regularly
attending worship every Sabbath, he was governed by the idea that it
was respectable to do so, and gave a man a standing in society, that
reacted favourably upon his worldly interests. In putting his name
to a subscription paper, a thing not always to be avoided, even by
him, a business view of the matter was invariably taken, and the
satisfaction of mind experienced on the occasion arose from the
reflection that the act would benefit him in the long run. As to the
minor charities, in the doing of which the left hand has no
acquaintance with the deeds of the right hand, Mr. Bolton never
indulged in them. If his left hand had known the doings of his right
hand in matters of this kind, said hand would not have been much
wiser for the knowledge.
Thus life went on; and Mr. Bolton was ever busy in gathering in his
FOREWORD TO MY AMERICAN FRIENDS Now after spending some very pleasant weeks in your interesting country, I feel sure that this book will find many sympathetic readers in America. Quite naturally it will be discussed; some, doubtless, will censure it--and unjustly; others will believe with me that the tale teaches a great moral lesson. Born as the Boy was born, the end which Fate forced upon him, to me, was inevitable. Each word and act of the three weeks of his parents' love-idyl must reflect in the character and life of the child. Little by little the baby King grew before my mental vision until I saw at last there was no escape from his importunity and I allowed the insistent Boy--masterful even from his inception--to shape himself at his own sweet will. Thus he became the hero of my study. This is not a book for children or fools--but for men and women who can grasp the underlying principle of morality which has been uppermost in my mind as I wrote. Those who can see beyond the outburst of passion--the overmastering belief in the power of love to justify all