My Dear Carlyle,--Behold Mr. George Nichols's new digest and
exegesis of his October accounts. The letter seems to me the
most intelligible of the two papers, but I have long been that
man's victim, semi-annually, and never dare to make head against
his figures. You are a brave man, and out of the ring of his
enchantments, and withal have magicians of your own who can give
spell for spell, and read his incantations backward. I entreat
you to set them on the work, and convict his figures if you
can. He has really taken pains, and is quite proud of his
establishment of his accounts. In a month it will be April, and
be will have a new one to fender. Little and Brown also in April
promise a payment on _French Revolution,_--and I suppose
something is due from _Chartism._ We will hope that a Bill of
Exchange will yet cross from us to you, before our booksellers
fail.
I hoped before this to have reached my last proofsheet, but shall
have two or three more yet. In a fortnight or three weeks my
little raft will be afloat.* Expect nothing more of my powers of
construction,--no shipbuilding, no clipper, smack, nor skiff
even, only boards and logs tied together. I read to some
Mechanics' Apprentices a long lecture on Reform, one evening, a
little while ago. They asked me to print it, but Margaret Fuller
asked it also, and I preferred the _Dial,_ which shall have the
dubious sermon, and I will send it to you in that.--You see the
bookseller reverendizes me notwithstanding your laudable
perseverance to adorn me with profane titles, on the one hand,
and the growing habit of the majority of my correspondents to
clip my name of all titles on the other. I desire that you and
your wife will keep your kindness for
--R. W. Emerson
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* The first series of _Essays._
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