Boyhood

Abstract

In offering this story of my life I should like to make it clear that I am under no delusion concerning my position as an individual. I have had what I suppose would be regarded as a successful academic career. But I have no outstanding intellectual discoveries to my credit. I have occupied various public positions, sometimes with some effect. But the degree of my influence on the course of events has been very limited. My purpose in writing is not to suggest the importance of anything I have done, but rather to interpret the experiences I have had. I have lived through a period of extensive change, both in the world of thought and the world of affairs; and it has been my good luck to observe some of it from favourable positions. I have therefore come to think that a candid account of what I have seen and felt may be of some interest to persons other than myself.