"I have your letter of the 1st instant, and I thank you for it.
"May I correct the slight misunderstanding of my position which I fancy
I detect in your reply, and for which I am doubtless responsible by
reason of some ineffectiveness in my way of 'putting things.'
"My notion was, that if your relation with the 'B.' had been agreeable,
and your work satisfactorily paid, I should be sorry to lose you as
helper and adviser, because you felt that you could publish elsewhere
and otherwise to better advantage. Pray consider that you and I have
only been in communication in regard to this magazine; of the precise
manner and nature of your dealing with our senior partner in other
matters, I, of course, can know nothing. I can only receive the results.
"I had understood, on taking up the plan prepared for the 'B.,' that
its ostensible editors were to be _regular_ contributors,--supplying
for its pages articles whenever wanted, even as often as monthly.
"If I misapprehended the agreement with yourself, you must excuse
me, and acquit me of intentionally overstraining it. I did use your
articles slowly, for the reason, on the one hand, that I seldom had
by me more than one at a time, and could not exactly count upon the
receipt of another; and, on the other hand, because I knew you to be
busy on other things, and hesitated to take from you time which you
might prefer to use differently, thinking that when you were moved to
write, you would do so.
"Believe me, your letters of suggestion were always welcome, and
would still be so. If anything in my last note--which was somewhat
hurried--seemed to be cast in the form of a reflection upon you, I hope
that you will consider that I did not so intend it.
"I have neither the right nor the desire to impugn your reasons for
seeking another channel of communicating with the public than such
as B. and H. have been able to afford, and I do not think I implied
anything to the contrary. It is for you to make the best market of
your writings that you can; and although I may, as well as any other
publisher, have my own view of what you should do, and what should
be done for you, I am most far from wishing you to accept my view
unconvinced, and I do not even offer it therefore.
"I honestly and earnestly wish you as thorough success as you can
desire; and I hope that after you have put other publishers to the
_real test_,--not of telling you what their brethren ought to do, but
of themselves doing what they say should be done,--you will find as
complete satisfaction from the general average of your next _five
or six_ years, as I am inclined to think you might derive from a
consideration of a similar period just ending.
"Sincerely yours,
"H. M. BRUMMELL."
Solomon, in the enthusiasm of his love for his little sister, conjures
up quaint fancies to embody his ardent longings to lavish gifts upon
her. "If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver;
and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar." So,
if this correspondence with Mr. Brummell were the Sacred Scriptures,
one would express his admiration by writing a commentary upon it. His
especial appreciation would be given to the childlike innocence with
which Mr. Brummell darts out of his path in pursuit of chimerical
beetles, while admonishing _me_ to remember that we are concerned with
but a single bug. Nor would he refuse the meed of one melodious tear
to the _naïveté_ with which this complete letter-writer, in his first
epistle, lays bare the mercenary motives of his correspondent, and, in
the second, calmly affirms, as a corollary to his propositions, that
he knows nothing about the matter. We are all aware that men do speak
unadvisedly with their lips, but the unconscious sweetness of Mr.
Brummell's admission is the peculiar gift of Heaven to Mr. Brummell.
The learned commentator might not be able to throw any light upon
the points which are obscure to Mr. Brummell; nor can the impartial
historian furnish any clew to the mystery of the "strong box," the
"promising experiment," and the "parvenu hawkers and peddlers," so
significantly mentioned. The present writer has no information on these
points, and is inclined to believe that Mr. Brummell evolved them, as
the German philosopher did the camel, from his moral consciousness.
But the question is not of sacred but profane literature, and we will
not darken counsel by words without knowledge.
Until about the middle of March, this matter had not been mentioned to
any one except Mr. Dane. Seeing the sea-change into something rich and
strange, to which it was liable at the hands of the house of Brummell
& Hunt, I thought it might be well to give my own version of it; and
I spoke of it to some of those who were nearest me, and learned, as
reported in a letter of April 18, to Mr. Dane: "A. was not much taken
aback by the aspect of my affairs,--thinks they have only done by me
as by others; if one is 'up' to such things, he makes his bargains; if
he leaves it to them, he gets theirs, such as they are. A. has done
just as I did, never said anything about it, and they pay what they
choose. What they choose is twelve and a half cents on a dollar and a
half book, and ten cents on a dollar and a quarter book. He says he has
made some inquiries, and supposes he could get more elsewhere, but 'O,
he is rich!' B. has ten per cent. written contract. ---- says D. has
the same. E., of his own accord, told a friend of mine that he did not
think B. & H. were good publishers for authors, as they advertised so
little, and had no agencies for pushing sales. I don't agree with that,
for I would much rather a book would travel on its own merits. In fact,
I have always especially rejoiced in that attribute of B. & H. A. says
K. is shrewd and he has no doubt _he_ is well paid. But what is the use
of talking about it any more?"