Dear Emerson,--I must write you a word before this Packet go,
tho' my haste is very great. I received your two Newspapers
(price only twopence); by the same Ship there came, and reached
me some days later, a Letter from Mr. Everett enclosing the
_Cromwell_ portions of the same printed-matter, clipt out by
scissors; written, it appeared, by Mr. Everett's nephew; some
of whose remarks, especially his wish that I might once be in New
England, and see people "praying," amused me much! The Cotton
Letter, &c., I have now got to the bottom of; Birch's copy is in
the Museum here,--a better edition than I had. Of "Levered" and
the other small American Documents--alas, I get cartloads of the
like or better tumbled down at my door, and my chief duty is to
front them resolutely with a _shovel._ "Ten thousand tons" is
but a small estimate for the quantity of loose and indurated
lumber I have had to send sounding, on each hand of me, down,
down to the eternal deeps, never to trouble _me_ more! The
jingle of it, as it did at last get under way, and go down, was
almost my one consolation in those unutterable operations.--I am
again over head and ears; but shall be out soon: never to
return more.
By this Packet, according to volunteer contract, there goes out
by the favor of your Chapman a number of sheets, how many I do
not exactly know, of the New Edition: Chapman First and Chapman
Second (yours and mine) have undertaken to manage the affair for
this month and for the following months;--many thanks to them
both for taking it out of my hands. What you are to do with the
Article you already know. If no other customer present himself,
can you signify to Mr. Hart of Philadelphia that the sheets are
much at his service,--his conduct on another occasion having
given him right to such an acknowledgment from me? Or at any
rate, _you_ will want a new Copy of this Book; and can retain
the sheets for that object.--Enough of them.
From Mr. Everett I learn that your Boston Lectures have been
attended with renown enough: when are the Lectures themselves to
get to print? I read, last night, an Essay on you, by a kind of
"Young Scotland," as we might call it, in an Edinburgh Magazine;
very fond of you, but shocked that you were Antichristian:--
really not so bad. The stupidities of men go crossing one
another; and miles down, at the bottom of all, there is a little
veinlet of sense found running at last!
If you see Mr. Everett, will you thank him for his kind
remembrance of me, till I find leisure (as I have vainly hoped
today to do) to thank him more in form. A dignified, compact
kind of man; whom I remember with real pleasure.
Jargon abounds in our Newspapers and Parliament Houses at
present;--with which "the present Editor," and indeed I think the
Public at large, takes little concern, beyond the regret of being
_bored_ by it. The Corn-Laws are going very quietly the way of
all deliriums; and then there will at least be one delirium
less, and we shall start upon new ones.
Not a word more today, but my blessings and regards. God be with
you and yours always.
Ever your affectionate,
T. Carlyle