That this life then may be less bad, somewhat more vera cions, and not less impartial than such a performance, I, who have always been more lavish of deeds than promises, here pledge myself and my reader to write with as little prejudice as is vouchsafed to man; and I do so because after studying myself pretty well, I have found, I think, in me on the whole, a little more good than evil. And if Ihave not perhaps the courage or the indiscretion to reveal all the truth, I shall cer tainly not have the baseness to lie.