I have just come upon a letter of yours that I got at Galveston and (I
fear) did not acknowledge. But I've written you since, so I fancy all
is well.
You mention that sonnet that Chamberlain asked for. You should not
have let him have it--it was, as you say, the kind of stuff that
magazines like. Nay, it was even better. But I wish you'd sent it
elsewhere. You owed it to me not to let the Cosmopolitan's readers
see anything of yours (for awhile, at least) that was less than
_great_. Something as great as the sonnet that you sent to McClure's
was what the circumstances called for.
"And strict concern of relativity"--O bother! that's not poetry. It's
the slang of philosophy.
I am still awaiting my copy of the new "Testimony." That's why I'm
scolding.
Sincerely yours,
AMBROSE BIERCE.
[The Army and Navy Club, Washington, D. C.,
April 18, 1908.]