Chapter M: N. to Mr. Dane, March 20

"I do not know whether your letter requires an answer, but as the old philosopher said, 'I have often been sorry I kept still but never was sorry I spoke.' So I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

"Ellingwood & Sampson are respectable. So far so good. I suppose they stand first in New England, don't they, by all odds? But they are in New England, and I have conceived a distaste for New England publishing. Also they don't publish solid books such as mine, but Whately, Bacon, Wheaton, and similar light literature. Would they be as likely to do well by me as a big New York Mandarin, like the Troubadours or Pearvilles? Do they know that my popularity is like that retired clergyman whose sands of life are nearly run out? They will take a new book, but shall I let the old go to waste, and ought not the new to go with the old to communicate an impulse thereunto? And is it not better to let the whole be till after arbitration, or the overthrow of the existing order of things? I should like H., P., & Co. to be as little exasperated as possible before Gog and Magog come to close quarters.... _Homer_ had to pay an immense sum for one of his books which was quite out of print and of no use to the publisher.... If Mr. Campton testifies that the cost of making my books is so much and the profit so much, they must admit or deny it. If they admit his figures they admit the profits which they have heretofore denied. If they deny his figures they deny profits; and how can they ask high prices for unprofitable property? If Mertons have personal grievances to redress they would be more likely to take me up _con amore_, and so I make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. But I shall be a troublesome person hereafter to transact business with. Having once wasted my sweetness on the desert air, I shall be henceforth only the mother of vinegar. Whenever I see a publisher coming in at the front gate, I shall drop the cake-basket into the wash-boiler, slip the spoons into my pocket and keep my hand on my watch all the time I am talking with him, which might not look conciliatory. Be sure and tell Mr. Campton this, and also that there is no sale for the books, that is, if you ever say more to him about it. I don't wish to sail into anybody's good graces under false colors, and am willing to take for granted Butler's (Samuel) declaration that the pleasure is as great in being cheated as to cheat. I am not sure I shall not write a book and call it

'HARI-KARI,
OR
A CURIOSITY OF LITERATURE,'

and put The Whole Deviltry of Man into it.... Is not he who compounds with wickedness as bad as he who commits it? And oughtn't I to hold up my beacon as a warning to all future generations? If I am not only to be fought above ground, but am also to be undermined, shall not I countermine?

"'And shall Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney die,
Then thirty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why!'

"I am that thirty thousand Cornish boys.

"You are not expected to answer my questions. You can ponder them as a theme for meditation in the night-watches."

MR. DANE TO M. N., MARCH 22.

"Mr. Hunt proposes to pass _the season_ abroad--probably will go about the time the Lord High Chancellor & Co. are ready to hear us."

HUNT, PARRY, & CO. TO M. N., APRIL 12.

"We are in hopes of getting a meeting of our referees early next week. Mr. Russell has advised us of his intention of being in Athens some time next week, and we have requested him to appoint as early a day as possible in order to accommodate Mr. Hampden. We trust you will be prepared to meet the referees on any day they may appoint."