To the Same,
ST. DAVID'S, Aug. 6, 1874.
WE have had a good deal of conference together, you and I, old friend,
but I do not know that we ever discussed the subject of bores. You
have raised questions about it, both for the next world and this,
which, though I said nothing about them in my book, as you facetiously
remark, it may surprise you to know are quite serious with me. Thus,
if there is to be society in the next world, what can save it from
the weariness of society in this,--save it, in other words, from
bores? The spiritists say that Theodore Parker gives lectures there
to delighted audiences. And, truth to say, I do not know of any other
social occupation that would be so satisfactory as that of teaching or
learning. What is all the highest conversation here, but that by which
we help one another--teaching or being taught--to higher and juster
thoughts? That would shake off the yoke of boredom under which so many
groan now. If, instead of eternal surface-talk, we could strike down
to reality, to something that interested our minds and hearts, fresh
streams would flow over the arid waste of commonplace. Real thoughts
would be a divining-rod. If, when a man calls upon me, he could, teach
me something upon which he knows more than I do, or I could do the same
for him, neither of us would be bored. [324] Do I not talk like a book?
But, to be serious, so much am I bored with general society, that I am
inclined to say I had rather live as I do here in Sheffield. Is n't
Cummington a blessed place for that?
But alas! it don't save you from being bored with letters,--vide, for
example, this, perhaps, which I am now writing.
But, O excellent man! though you never bored me in talk, you have
lately bored into me; I will tell you how.
A month or two ago a book agent came to me, asking me to subscribe
for "Bryant's Pictorial America." I was astonished, and said, "Do
you mean to say that Mr. Bryant's name will appear on the title page
of this work, and that it was written by him?"--"Certainly," was the
reply; "not that he has written the whole, but much of it." I could n't
believe that, and was declining to subscribe, when my wife--that woman
has a great respect for you--called me aside and said, "I wish you
would take this book." So I turned back and said, "My wife wants this
book, and I will subscribe for it." Well, yesterday the first volume
came to hand; and, turning to the title page, I found edited by W. C.
B., which means not that you wrote the book, but seem to father it.
Next year a man will come along with "Bryant's Popular History of the
United States of America," and the year after, for aught I know, with
"Specimens of American Literature," by W. C. B. I do seriously beseech
you, my friend, to look into this. These people take advantage of your
good-nature; and ill-nature will spring up about it, if this kind of
thing goes on. With love to J., and hoping to see you,
Yours ever,