Book First Part I |
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Book FirstPart I
Part I
All men of whatsoever quality they be, who have done anything of
excellence, or which may properly resemble excellence, ought, if they are
persons of truth and honesty, to describe their life with their own hand; but
they ought not to attempt so fine an enterprise till they have passed the age
of forty. This duty occurs to my own mind now that I am travelling beyond the
term of fifty-eight years, and am in Florence, the city of my birth. Many
untoward things can I remember, such as happen to all who live upon our earth;
and from those adversities I am now more free than at any previous period of
my career - nay, it seems to me that I enjoy greater content of soul and
health of body than ever I did in bygone years. I can also bring to mind some
pleasant goods and some inestimable evils, which, when I turn my thoughts
backward, strike terror in me, and astonishment that I should have reached
this age of fifty-eight, wherein, thanks be to God, I am still travelling
prosperously forward.
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