There is no question that, as an autobiography, _The Story of a Soldier's Life_ is disappointing. It was undertaken too late, and it could never have been written at all, save for the fact that Wolseley had, in earlier years, kept copious journals and written long letters when he was abroad on his various campaigns. These letters and journals were collected and typed, and a secretary helped to put them together and give a certain amount of cohesion to the narrative. The book was strangely edited; the preface appears in the second volume, the dedication is repeated twice, there is no account whatever of the circumstances in which the Memoir was compiled. What is more serious is that the personal and intimate life of the author is entirely neglected. When he had not before him letters from the Crimea or the Red River, from China or Ashantee, he had nothing to go upon but the newspapers. The sad cause of all this cannot be concealed. Although his physical health, and indeed in essentials his mental health, were unimpaired, he had begun to suffer from a radical decay of memory. This was already becoming obvious before he left the War Office, and it grew rapidly in intensity. It was a very curious infirmity, for it dealt chiefly with what I may call immediate memory. For instance, in these later years, if an old friend came to see him on a carefully prepared visit, he would recognize him instantly, with the old ardour, but would say: "I'm delighted to see you, no one told me you were coming!" If a little later on the same occasion he was called away for a few minutes, he would return with a repeated welcome: "Oh! how nice to see you--nobody told me you were coming!" This painful affliction has to be mentioned, if only because it explains the strange construction of _The Story of a Soldier's Life_. It grew upon him, until it wove a curtain which concealed him from all intercourse with the world. In perfect physical health, but needing and receiving the most assiduous attention, he lived on, mainly at Mentone, until he completed his eightieth year. But his wonderful and beneficent life had really come to an end ten years earlier. 1921. INDEX A Aasen, Ivar, his influence on Norse language and literature, 258 Ablancourt, Tallemant des Réaux and, 114 Academic Committee, an English, and its functions, 145 Académie Française, and its foundation, 145 _et seq_. Acton, Lord, 3, 15 _Adam Bede_, 4, 8 _Agatha_, 12 Aitken, George A., 77-78 _Album, The_, by Henry James, 33 _Alcidalis et Zélide_, 116 Alexander, George, 33 Allegory, the, as an essential to fairy poetry, 265 _Alma_, Prior's, 79 _Alps and Sanctuaries_, 74 _Altar of the Dead, The_, 18 _Ambassadors, The_, 44 _American Scene, The_, 45 _American, The_, 25, 31 American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps, Henry James and, 52 _Amos Barton_, 6, 9 _Anactoria_, Swinburne's first draft of, 87 _et seq_. _Analogy of Religion_, Joseph Butler's, 73 _Anaxandre et Orazie_, 154