"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."