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PREFACE
would-be authors themselves, and not with
their preparation. The best teaching they
can anywhere receive is at most a makeshift,
a mere starting point; they must learn
to rely upon themselves, and the earlier the
better. The most that this book or any
other can do is to guide them away from
certain wrong paths and toward certain
right ones ; they must cultivate self-criticism,
industry, the art of taking infinite pains, the
habit of looking upon to-day's failures as
the stepping stones toward to-morrow's
success. The laurels of authorship are
worth the winning largely because there is
no primrose path leading to them.
New York: April 13, 1911.
