Excerpt from Young Men: Faults and Ideals; A Familiar Talk, With Quotations From Letters AN old painter of Sienna, after standing for a. Long time in silent meditation before his canvas, with hands crossed meekly on his breast and head bent reverently low, turned away, saying, May God forgive me that I did not do it better! Many people, as they come to the close of their life, and look back at what they have done with their opportunities and privileges, and at what they are leaving as their finished work, to be their memorial, can only pray with like sadness, May God forgive me that I did not do it better! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.