Mark Twain

I have been reading at The Autobiography of Mark Twain for more than a year now -- perhaps two years, but that would be more than one; taking time out to read fiction as advertised and history that actually happened -- and I have reached a conclusion concerning The Great Man of American Letters:

Except for his stated feelings for his immediate family (and “feelings” is the correct word for his time and place, and not the same meaning as today, when every one must have “feelings” about every thing, but few people are allowed to have “thoughts” or to “think) … Except for his stated feelings for his immediate family, a reader must not believe anything Twain writes.