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Letter ReferenceLetters/559
Archive
Epistolary Type
Letter Date1915
Address FromLondon
Address To
Who ToAdela Villiers Smith nee Villiers
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 348
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
When Cronwright-Schreiner prepared The Letters of Olive Schreiner, with few exceptions he then destroyed her originals. However, some people gave him copies and kept the originals or demanded the return of these; and when actual Schreiner letters can be compared with his versions, his have omissions, distortions and bowdlerisations. Where Schreiner originals have survived, these will be found in the relevant collections across the OSLO website. There is however a residue of some 587 items in The Letters for which no originals are extant. They are included here for sake of completeness. However, their relationship to Schreiners actual letters cannot now be gauged, and so they should be read with caution for the reasons given.
1To Mrs. Francis Smith.
2London (? 1915).
3
4... No, the only feeling I have about my life is that I have thrown it
5all away, done nothing with it. I have only two excuses, that I
6started with everything against me, and that I have always done at the time
7what I felt to be the right thing. But I doubt me whether I have been
8right; I have always felt, do the nearest duty first; so one
9sacrifices all the larger ends. But it's no use weeping over the past
10- one must always live in the present and future while there is any -
11the past one cannot touch.
12