Poems (Rowe)/La mia Apologia
LA MIA APOLOGIA
FOR remembrance a printed word is better than a faded photograph, and if, when I am no longer here, some friend who loved me, open this little book, I feel that then I should not be really dead. I should live again in their memory.
A wise man of the East once said "Oh! that mine enemy would write a book!" and this ought to make one pause.
But then, I have no enemies. At least I am unconscious of them; so that for me they do not exist.
To my friends who read me, I owe an apology for the slightness of my work, but I know that they will remember that all my working hours have been given to that exacting mistress named Art, and that only as a relaxation I abandoned the brush for the pen.
I am especially proud to be able to have as a frontispiece the splendid work of my friend Sir John Millais; work that will rank in years to come, I venture to prophesy, amongst the best of the Old Masters.