In 1897, when we were living in Tedworth Square, London, and I was writing the book called "Following the Equator" my average was eighteen hundred words a day; here in Florence (1904), my average seems to be fourteen hundred words per sitting of four or five hours.[16] I was deducing from the above that I have been slowing down steadily in these thirty-six years, but I perceive that my statistics have a defect: three thousand words in the spring of 1868 when I was working seven or eight or nine hours at a sitting has little or no advantage over the sitting of to-day, covering half the time and producing half the output.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." [_Dictated, January 23, 1907._]--The proverb says that Providence protects children and idiots.

This is really true.

I know it because I have tested it.

It did not protect George through the most of his campaign, but it saved him in his last inning, and the veracity of the proverb stood confirmed.
[Sidenote: (1865.)] I have several times been saved by this mysterious interposition, when I was manifestly in extreme peril.