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Aet. 47, to a man of letters. In his Preface to the six-penny revised edition of Esther Waters (1899), George Moore listed Yeats and Fitzgerald with Shakespeare, Goethe, Wagner, Balzac and Wordsworth as authors who revised their works in later editions.

The Preface went on: ”It was very generally assumed that its [Esther Waters] object was to agitate for a law to prevent betting, rather than to exhibit the beauty of the simple heart and so inculcate a love of goodness. The teaching of Esther Waters is as non-combative as that of the Beatitudes. Betting may be an evil, but what is evil is always uncertain, whereas there can be no question that to refrain from judging others, from despising the poor in spirit and those who do not possess the wealth of this world, is certain virtue. That all things that live are to be pitied is the lesson that I learn from reading my book, and that others may learn as much is my hope.”