TO
MRS. G. H. LEWIS
Dear Mrs. Lewis,
This little book were not worthy of being associated with your name, did it not offer an ideal of life at once refined and practical, cultured yet wisely energetic. Gracian points to noble aims, and proposes, on the whole, no ignoble means of attaining to them. The Spanish Jesuit sees clear, but he looks upward.
There is, however, one side of life to which he is entirely blind, as was perhaps natural in an ecclesiastic writing before the Age of Salons. He nowhere makes mention in his pages of the gracious influence of Woman as Inspirer and Consoler in the Battle of Life. Permit me to repair this omission by placing your name in the forefront of this English version of his maxims. To those honoured with your friendship this will by itself suffice to recall all the ennobling associations connected with your sex.
Believe me, dear Mrs. Lewis,
Yours most sincerely,
JOSEPH JACOBS.
KILBURN, 26th October 1892.