My Autobiography

My Autobiography, subtitled A Fragment, is by F. Max Müller, and its preface says "my father had, in the intervals of more serious work, occupied his leisure moments in jotting down reminiscences of his early life." The preface adds that in 1898 and 1899 he issued the two volumes of Auld Lang Syne with recollections of his friends "but very little about his own life and career."

The writer says he flattered himself that he had found the true way out of all these difficulties "by writing not exactly my own life, but recollections of my friends and acquaintances who had influenced me most". The writer says he thought that by describing "my environment, my friends, and fellow workers" he could best describe "the course of my own life," as one describes the shores of a river. The writer says he had long felt that a stay in Paris was "indispensable" for his Sanskrit studies, and that "Sanskrit, and my love of an independent life won the day". The writer names Charles Kingsley as a friend who "preached muscular Christianity", and Carlyle as another old friend who "preached all his life that “it was no use talking, if one would not do.”"