Of the projects here mentioned, that of the little book of essays on
the enjoyment of the world never took shape, nor were those
contributions towards it which he printed in the Portfolio ever
re-published until after the writer's death. _The Appeal to the
Clergy of the Church of Scotland_ was printed in 1874, published as a
pamphlet in February 1875, and attracted, I believe, no attention
whatever. The "fables" must have been some of the earliest numbers of
the series continued at odd times till near the date of his death and
published posthumously: I do not know which, but should guess _The
House of Eld_, _Yellow Paint_, and perhaps those in the vein of
Celtic mystery, _The Touchstone_, _The Poor Thing_, _The Song of
To-morrow_.
_[Swanston, Summer 1874], Tuesday._
MY DEAR COLVIN,--What is new with you? There is nothing new with me:
Knox and his females begin to get out of restraint altogether; the
subject expands so damnably, I know not where to cut it off. I have
another paper for the PTFL[15] on the stocks: a sequel to the two
others; also, that is to say, a word in season as to contentment and a
hint to the careless to look around them for disregarded pleasures.
Seeley wrote to me asking me "to propose" something: I suppose he
means--well, I suppose I don't know what he means. But I shall write to
him (if you think it wise) when I send him this paper, saying that my
writing is more a matter of God's disposition than of man's proposal;
that I had from _Roads_ upward ever intended to make a little budget of
little papers all with this intention before them, call it ethical or
aesthetic as you will; and thus I shall leave it to him (if he likes) to
regard this little budget, as slowly they come forth, as a unity in its
own small way. Twelve or twenty such essays, some of them mainly ethical
and expository, put together in a little book with narrow print in each
page, antique, vine leaves about, and the following title.