DEAD LETTERS
DEAD LETTERS
BY
MAURICE BARING
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1910
The letters in this book are re-printed fromthe Morning Post, to the Proprietor and Editorof which newspaper the author owes his thanks forthe permission to reproduce them here.
vii
DEDICATION
To Lord Lucas
My dear Bron,
I wish to begin this bundle of “Dead Letters,”collected from the Dead Letter Office of theWorld, with a living letter to you.
These letters are in no wise meant to be eitherhistorical documents or historical studies or aidsto the understanding of history, or learning of anykind with or without tears. They are the fruits ofimagination rather than of research. The word researchis not even remotely applicable here, for inmy case it means the hazy memories of a distanteducation indolently received, a few hurried referencesto Smith’s “Classical Dictionary,” a map ofRome which is in the London Library, andBouillet’s “Biographie Universelle.” So that ifyou tell me that my account of the Carthaginianfleet is full of inaccuracies, or that the psychologyof my Lesbia conflicts with the historical evidence,viiiI shall be constrained to answer that I do not care.Yet amidst this chaff of fancy there are a few grainsof historical truth. By historical truth I mean therecorded impressions (they may be false, of course,and the persons who recorded them may have beenliars, in which case it is historical falsehood) ofmen on events which were contemporary with them.One of the letters is entirely