Sincerely yours,

    WM. JAMES.

Several times in my narrative, I have said that the seemingly unkind fate that robbed me of several probably happy and healthful years had hidden within it compensations which have offset the sufferings and the loss of those years.  Not the least of the compensations has been the many letters sent to me by eminent men and women, who, having achieved results in their own work, are ever responsive to the efforts of anyone trying to reach a difficult objective.  Of all the encouraging opinions I have ever received, one has its own niche in my memory.  It came from William James a few months before his death, and will ever be an inspiration to me.  Let my excuse for revealing so complimentary a letter be that it justifies the hopes and aspirations expressed in the course of my narrative, and shows them to be well on the way to accomplishment.

    95 IRVING STREET, CAMBRIDGE,
    January 17, 1910.

    DEAR BEERS: 

    Your exegesis of my farewell in my last note to you was erroneous,
    but I am glad it occurred, because it brought me the extreme
    gratification of your letter of yesterday.

You are the most responsive and recognizant of human beings, my dear Beers, and it “sets me up immensely” to be treated by a practical man on practical grounds as you treat me.  I inhabit such a realm of abstractions that I only get credit for what I do in that spectral empire; but you are not only a moral idealist and philanthropic enthusiast (and good fellow!), but a tip-top man of business in addition; and to have actually done anything that the like of you can regard as having helped him is an unwonted ground with me for self-gratulation.  I think that your tenacity of purpose, foresight, tact, temper, discretion and patience, are beyond all praise, and I esteem it an honor to have been in any degree associated with you.  Your name will loom big hereafter, for your movement must prosper, but mine will not survive unless some other kind of effort of mine saves it.

    I am exceedingly glad of what you say of the Connecticut Society. 
    May it prosper abundantly!

    I thank you for your affectionate words which I return with
    interest and remain, for I trust many years of this life,

    Yours faithfully,

    WM. JAMES.

At this point, rather than in the dusty corners of the usual preface, I wish to express my obligation to Herbert Wescott Fisher, whom I knew at school.  It was he who led me to see my need of technical training, neglected in earlier years.  To be exact, however, I must confess that I read rather than studied rhetoric.  Close application to its rules served only to discourage me, so I but lazily skimmed the pages of the works which he recommended.  But my friend did more than direct me to sources.  He proved to be the kindly mean between the two extremes of stranger and intimate.  I was a prophet not without honor in his eyes.  Upon an embarrassing wealth of material he brought to bear his practical knowledge of the workmanship of writing; and my drafting of the later parts and subsequent revisions has been so improved by the practice received under his scrupulous direction that he has had little fault to find with them.  My debt to him is almost beyond repayment.