_E.B.B. to R.B._
Saturday.
[Post-mark, October 6, 1845.]
Tuesday is given up in full council. The thing is beyond doubting of,
as George says and as you thought yesterday. And then George has it in
his head to beguile the Duke of Palmella out of a smaller cabin, so
that I might sail from the Thames on the twentieth--and whether he
succeeds or not, I humbly confess that one of the chief advantages of
the new plan if not the very chief (as _I_ see it) is just in the
_delay_.
Your spring-song is full of beauty as you know very well--and 'that's
the wise thrush,' so characteristic of you (and of the thrush too)
that I was sorely tempted to ask you to write it 'twice over,' ... and
not send the first copy to Mary Hunter notwithstanding my promise to
her. And now when you come to print these fragments, would it not be
well if you were to stoop to the vulgarism of prefixing some word of
introduction, as other people do, you know, ... a title ... a name?
You perplex your readers often by casting yourself on their
intelligence in these things--and although it is true that readers in
general are stupid and can't understand, it is still more true that
they are lazy and won't understand ... and they don't catch your point
of sight at first unless you think it worth while to push them by the
shoulders and force them into the right place. Now these fragments ...
you mean to print them with a line between ... and not one word at the
top of it ... now don't you! And then people will read