 Section 6 of A Battle of the Books. A Truce. Then for a time other events absorbed me, and the whole matter faded out of sight and thought. Afterward, to save the trouble of repeated explanations, I determined to arrange the tragedy in compact shape, and let such of my friends as cared to know learn it from the original documents. Interestingly, on the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth of May, I wrote to Mr. Hunt, Will you be so good as to permit me to take copies of those letters that I have sent you, which resulted in breaking the connection between us? I have not my papers by me, and cannot give you the exact dates of the letters I want, but the first was sent on or about the last of December, the next, etc., etc., etc. If you desire it, I will return the letters to you, or if you prefer that they should not go out of your hands, and will say when and where I can see them, I shall be happy to suit your convenience. Mr. Hunt did not reply to this letter directly, but sought an interview with Mr. Dane. Mr. Dane to M.N. Mr. Hunt has been at my office an hour, talking of you, etc. He at first said you had written him for copies of your letters, that he is taking account of stock and could not possibly have them copied at present, and wished, if I were writing you, that I would say so. I said, why not enclose the letters to M.N., and ask her to return them if you want them? He said he would. He seems worried about the matter, and said, if I could only know what M.N. wants, I would do anything to satisfy her. I said, I have done all I could to prevent a final breach between you. From all I could learn, I thought M.N. had not received what she was entitled to. Everybody to whom we referred expressed this opinion. Nobody suggested that less than ten percent was right, and you allow her six and two thirds, and seven and one half. Her conclusion was inevitable, that you had not done right, etc. He replied with various abstractions as to how authors forgot the various expenses, etc. I told him you felt hurt that he did not notice your letters, asking explanation. He said he wrote you to come and see him, and he would have gone to you had you suggested it. I said what I should have done was to see you and explain the matter, and not allow it to rest so for weeks, as if it were a matter of indifference, etc. Finally I told him what I advised you, to wait for their next account, and see whether they would not, now that high prices have to some extent passed by, allow a further percentage, and that I suggested to you to write them, or allow me to, saying that it was hoped they might make their future accounts more satisfactory. He made no reply. I mentioned that you really felt that the Adriatic was your proper avenue to the public, and had a paper now that you hardly knew what to do with. He said all she has to do is send it along. Well all this talk came to nothing. The only fact that it all modifies my view is that A, B, and the rest seem to be treated the same, and that is a surprise to me, and takes off in a measure the C of taking advantage of female weakness, a M, M, N, to Mr. Dane, June the 1st. Your letter came Saturday, but my letters have not yet appeared from Mr. Hunt. His talk to you looks like subterfuge. I never suggested his getting the letters copied, but send them to me, and I would return them, or tell me where and when I should see them, and I would wait his convenience. Again, what have I to do with the expenses of publishers? I am not complaining that he pays small percent, but that he, in the first place, pays less than other publishers, and secondly pays me less than he pays other authors, and is thereby guilty of a breach of faith. On the same day, May 29th, the firm of Brummel and Hunt addressed a letter to Mr. Dane, saying, We have occasion to print several volumes of M. N.'s writings, which under ordinary circumstances we should proceed to do at once. Before doing so, however, in the present posture of affairs, we have an offer to make to M. N. The dissatisfaction which she feels, and is constantly expressing toward us as her publishers, would probably lead her to prefer that her books should be in other hands. We are willing to sell the stereotyped plates and manufactured stock of her books at a reasonable price to any publisher with whom she may choose to arrange for their future publication. An early answer would be acceptable, as in the event of our retaining the books, we wish to proceed with the manufacture. Mr. Dane to M. N. June 1, 1768. The breezes from B. and H. are very fluctuating. The same day in which Mr. H. came and had the long talk, which I reported to you, the firm seemed to have written the enclosed, which I did not get till this morning. If you don't do anything for a month, nothing in particular will happen. Still, you want the books in the market, and perhaps somebody will take them off B. and H.'s hands and do as well. I am somewhat inclined to say to them that we will take all the stereotyped plates and all the books on hand of them at the appraisal of fair men, and the same men shall adjust all claims for the past copyrights. I am surprised at this blunt note, after Mr. H.'s amiable conversation. If we are going to have a settlement, let us open the past, and make them refer the whole thing. Let them give up everything and adjust the balance, as fair men shall say is right. But the note of the firm did not suggest any settlement of past claims, and therefore presented but a lame and impotent conclusion to the matter. What I wanted was indemnity for the past, not security for the future. If a man cheats me once, says the proverb, it is a shame to him. If he cheats me twice, it is a shame to me. The information that I was feeling and constantly expressing dissatisfaction might perhaps be classified among the locals as startling if true. What I felt must have been entirely a matter of inference, as it was long since I had expressed either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. I had been concerned in other matters. My note to Mr. Hunt contained no emotional expressions whatever. But as I had had my full share of sentimentalizing, it was no more than fair that Mr. B. and H. should have their turn at it. Their course seemed to me mere child's play, and not the play of good children either, which must serve as excuse for the following reply sent to Mr. Dane. Where letter came this morning, Mr. Brummel and Hunt have improved even on Mr. Brummel. His felicitous original idea was only that I was impelled by a desire to have recourse to the parvenu hawkers and peddlers of books. The combined wisdom of the firm seems to point to my becoming a parvenu hawker and peddler myself. Their fine instinct has doubtless divined my long cherished dream of setting up a book stall beside the orange woman in the neighboring corner of the common. Footnote A common is a tract of ground which belongs not to individuals but to the public. Probably the bookstore referred to was on the outskirts of the city, and the common was the land as yet unappropriated by builders, and on which doubtless sheep and cows grazed undisturbed. Note by editor. And footnote. Pray present my compliments to Mr. Brummel and Hunt, and say to them with many thanks, that as this new career could hardly be said to open brilliantly with an array of obsolete and obsolescent volumes, I do not propose to enter upon it until some new work appears, when I shall crave their blessing not their books. Do not be at the trouble of transmitting this message. Send the letter down bodily, and let it whistle itself. On Monday the first of June, one of my friends reverend Mr. Hayes, having gone to Mr. Hunt with the olive branch in his hand, but without my knowledge, and been completely won over by his amiable bearing, came to me, and begged me, if only out of regard to himself, to have an interview with Mr. Hunt. I had been familiar for several years with Mr. Hunt's gifts and graces, and knew that, though they were charming for social intercourse, they were not easily reducible to two-and-a-half, still less to three-and-one-third percent. But as Mr. Hayes begged me by his friendship, as regarding Mr. Hunt, everything which I had cared to save was lost, and as I wanted my letters which, though promised, did not come, I consented, so far as to give Mr. Hayes permission to say to Mr. Hunt that if he chose to come to my house to bring my letters, I would be at home on Thursday the fourth of June. M.N. to Mr. Dane. Mr. Hunt is coming down on Thursday to bring me my letters. I think it a foolish and useless, as it is a most disagreeable thing—foolish simply because—useless, but I have agreed to it, so far as to say, that I should be at home. The talk will amount to nothing because I cannot talk. He will have it all his own way, because it is a subject on which he is informed, and I am not. And then talk is never tangible. I want something that you can keep hold of, but at any rate I shall get my letters. It is impossible to refer it to arbitrators, because the worst part of my trouble was not of such sort as could come before them. I will never permit the matter to go before arbitrators unless it comes to be a case of honour. That is, I will not do it for the sake of what money I might get. M.N. to Mr. Dane. Mr. Hunt came down on Thursday as I expected. He was in some sort, my guest, and we met amicably and parted friendlily. The most important development of his visit was that he says he did in the early stages of the affair, send me just such a letter as I told him he should have sent. A letter written, as he says, by his own hand, because he would not have his clerk mixed up in it. Written with great pain, and the only letter he has written since his hand has been so lame, except one to Dickens. F.N. The Dickens is an exclamation of playful surprise. Probably the word as here used is a corruption of this phrase and was merely a strong way of expressing on Mr. Hunt's part that he had written no other letter at all. But after so great a lapse of time it is impossible to get at the exact truth. Note by editor and footnote. In this he assured me that it was all right, that he had the figures to show me so not withstanding appearances, and begged me to let him come to Zoar and do so. This without any other explanation would have quite satisfied me in the beginning, but this letter I never received. Of course, however, I receive his assertion that such a letter was written and I make the best use I can of it. He assured me, in the most solemn manner, that he has done by me as he has done by A, B, and the others, and that he has always done what he thought the best thing and most to my advantage. Now, when a man tells me that, I can have nothing more to say to him. Each has a greater percentage, because his books have never been printed but once, and that when work was cheaper, and so they pay him at the old prices. But I will go into particulars more fully when I see you. I suppose it is pretty much the same as you have heard yourself. He had admitted that he did not wonder at my course, seeing I had not received his letter, but seemed to think I should have had more confidence in him. Had always supposed I should stand by him, though the heavens fell. The heavens did not fall, though I sometimes think a part of the sky is not there. I told him that I had no intention to meddle with the past, agreed that they should go on with their books as if nothing had happened, and desired him, whatever course I might take in the future, to believe me not unfriendly toward himself, but that the developments of this trouble had made it impossible for me at once to resume my old place. But I don't think he minded that. Now you see, we are at peace. I do not deceive myself. It is not a very rapturous sort of peace. The relations between us are but a thin, meagre, unsubstantial substitute for those that formerly existed. But they are better than war, and they are truer than the old ones. And truth is better than falsehood, however agreeable the falsehood be. I do not mean that on either side there was any intentional falsehood, but that there was a sort of glamour which is now removed. Now, if anyone ever speaks to you of this, say, as I shall, that there was a misunderstanding, but that it is removed. I hope that you will not disapprove of what I have done, or perhaps rather of what I have not done, for my action has been chiefly a negative. I have simply let things be, inform, which I have always meant to do in substance. He assures me that it is all right, and I cannot stand up and dispute his word. Mr. Hunt, during this interview, insisted that at the time he made the change from ten percent to fifteen cents, he had a long talk with me and fully explained the reason. I insisted that he had never done so. I admitted that he had announced that he was going to make the change on account of the fluctuations in the prices of things and the consequent uncertainties. It was all I wanted and more. If he had said nothing, I should have been just as well satisfied. I had so much faith in him. A positive assurance generally carries it over a negative. Still, if a man asserted that he had offered himself to a girl, her negative assertion that he never had would, of itself, be entitled to as much credence as his positive one, supposing the character of both to be equal. If the man were in the habit of offering himself to girls, while the girl had never had another lover, her negative would surely outweigh his positive. Mr. Hunt had dealings with many authors. He was my only publisher, and he was more likely to be mistaken in this than I. He might have intended to make the explanation, or might have made it to someone else. But an explanation made to me, it is next to impossible I should have forgotten. Really the matter was not of importance, because if he made it then it would have answered every purpose. If I could have been made to see at one time, that seven and a half equals ten, I could have been made to see it at another. Here the controversy seemed to have come to a natural and pacific conclusion, and I began to take up the burden of life again, saying only it might have been different perhaps, but then it might not. I cannot affirm that I was entirely satisfied about the missing letters. Letters never are lost in our climate. We often wish they would be. There are dozens in this correspondence, nothing in whose life would have become them like it leaving it. But they all went straight as an arrow to the mark, and now, like Burns's Sonsie, smirking, dearbought Bess, they stare their daddy in the face, enough of ought ye like but grace. On the twenty-fourth of February, Mr. Hunt seemed first to have awakened to the fact that there was any cloud in the sky, and begged me in all kindness to tell him the ground of my sudden dissatisfaction. Of course the missing letter could not have been written before that time. After I replied to him, alleging the grounds of my sudden dissatisfaction, he replied by calling on Mr. Dane, as Mr. Dane's letter to me shows. I was not only unable to find any place where Mr. Hunt's explanatory letter might have been missing, but I could not find a place where it could have come in. But I let that pass. There seemed to be nothing more to do, and if there had been, I was too tired to do it. I thought the affair, like David's destructions, had come to a perpetual end, which, if not absolutely satisfactory, was at least relatively so. There are very few kinds of peace which are not better than war. I was not sure I had done the wisest thing, and as I wrote to Mr. Dane in review of it, to speak the truth in love I don't much care, that is, the whole affair had become so utterly tiresome to me that I long ago grew indifferent to it. How the business part of it should be settled I little cared. What I really had at stake is lost. But the traces of battle had hardly begun to be obliterated when an unexpected circumstance suddenly rekindled the flames of civil war. My sorrow's crown of sorrow had been that so bewailed in the lamentations of the Prophet, that there was no sorrow like under my sorrow. But by the chance of a word, without any revelation on my part, I discovered that a friend of mine was, and had been for some months, going through the same pleasant process which I had been enjoying. The similarity of operation was, in certain respects, remarkable. No accounts had been rendered for years, the author trusting entirely in the friendship of his publishers, so that, of course, there were no papers to be produced. But there was the same change from a still higher percentage to a lower fixed sum. The same assertion on the other side of a full explanation made and accepted which explanation was totally denied on the other, and the same declaration of regard for the author himself. The case was more aggravated than mine, not only because the author in question had been of an immeasurably higher standing than I, but also because he was dead, and the apparent exactions were made upon those who were dearest to him in life, and who were dependent upon the fruits of his genius. So then, mine was no longer an isolated case, but part of a regular system. How many of the writers who had received reduced pay had really and intelligently agreed to it, and how many had founded, like greatness, thrust upon them, and had accepted it on the representation of its being universal, rather than making a do, and a peer churlish. My friends certainly denied that any explanation had been made, or even that any notice of the change had been given her beforehand, and she rebelled against the change as soon as she did know it. Now, it is hard fighting for your own battles, since no matter how great you may deem your cause for quarrel, still it is a quarrel, and a mere personal altercation is always something in it petty and demeaning, but if you can fight for somebody else you mount at once to higher ground and gain the vantage. It came to me at once, as clear as light, that I was doing exactly what majeure's brumble and hunt had wisely counted on our all-doing in case we did anything, that is, fretting a little perhaps, but eventually letting it all drop, silenced, if not convinced. Was it not the height of presumption for any one son of Jesse to come out with a sling and a stone against this goliath of the publishers? Would it not be ridiculous to charge with injustice this house, whose praise for liberality is in all the churches? Of course, in discussing the details of the business, the author would have to go entirely out of his sphere, while the house would be perfectly at home. Still, I thought if I could not be a stone in the forehead of my giant, I could be a thorn in his side. If he were honorable and just in his dealings, no charge could harm him. If he were unjust, no reputation could save him. If his gains were ill-gotten, investigation would only establish him more firmly in his right way. If they were ill-gotten, it might be possible to prevent his repose in enjoying them, if he could not be induced to give them up, and he might thus be deterred from further ravage upon the unwary. The best way to serve the general wheel was to take up my own relinquished cause. I accordingly once more put my hand to the plow, resolved not to look back till I had drawn a straight furrow through my pleasant fields. While I was reflecting upon total depravity, preparatory to a renewal of hostilities, there may be a sudden transition from metaphor to metaphor, but let us all be thankful if nothing more than rhetoric becomes demoralized. The following note came from Mr. Dane, to whom I had communicated the tale of Mrs. Blanks, fancied, or real woes, August 10. Whether those five postage stamps pasted firmly on the first page of your note were intended as a birthday present, instead of the family Bible which I had some reason to think I might receive about this time, or as a payment of arrears for services in re, m, n, versus b, and h, I do not know. I might add, but will not for fear of being sarcastic, that it is far more than I expected either way, and that such munificence is more illustrative of the generosity of the giver than of the desserts of the humble recipient. And now I have a profound secret to impart to you and your nine particular friends. I have kept it two days and had some thoughts of never telling you, but since you claim the relation of client, I am not at liberty to humbug you, pardon the inelegance, as I cheerfully would do were you only a dear female friend. Well, Mr. Edwards called Saturday, and saying to him that I spoke, as St. Paul always speaks to you when you don't agree with him, by permission, and not by my own inspiration. I renewed our griefs, jubes renovar dolarum, and told him all. He, though like the rest of us true to his client, is evidently intimate with Mr. Hunt. He said b and h are willing, and propose to Mrs. Blank, that the contract which Mr. Edwards had made with them, that she should receive twelfths of volume on the sales, shall be given up, and that they will refer to two gentlemen of satisfactory character the matter of her future percentage. Then with that admirable frankness which is so natural to me, I said to Mr. Edwards that Mr. Hunt had made a great mistake with you, that you had accepted his commercial civilities as personal regard, and that he ought at least to keep up the standard of his conduct to common civility in his correspondence, etc., and that it was only because you would not follow my advice that matters were allowed to rest, that my opinion was, you had not received a just, much less a liberal share of the profits, and that I had urged you to propose to refer the matter of percentage to some disinterested person, which I thought they could not decline. Mr. Edwards at once said, Mr. Hunt shall do that, that shall be done at once. Evidently, Edwards thinks he can induce Hunt to propose that to you, and will endeavor to do so. Now, I thought at first I would not let you see my hand in the matter, but that is, on reflection, not quite fair as between man and man, using the word in this larger sense, embracing women. Wherefore, pray, do not call on B and H for any account just now, but wait and see if they do right you, as Edwards assured they will, proposing to satisfy you in this way. If they do, then you must accept the proposition, provided the past be also included, or it is the past which made you dissatisfied. You have not yet concluded yourself as the past or future as far as I know, and if the best man in the world says you ought to have no more than has been allowed you, I say we ought to be satisfied. The money I gave you ought to last longer than this. If you want a hundred dollars, send me an order on B and H, and I will present it and send you the money, and that will not commit us to their percentage. Now I expect partly that you will be vexed at my meddling with your affairs in this way, but Fiat Eustitio, whoever may rule it, M.N. to Mr. Dane, August 11th, 1768. Unquestionably, you need the family Bible more than the postage stamps, which I did not paste on. It must have been the dog days that did it. Of course I am not vexed at your meddling, and you only say that as you express it, shamming. I hate to have the thing come up again, but it may be more effectually laid by it. One thing, though. If all the men in the world say I have had enough, it will not alter my relations toward Mr. Hunt. That is, if he proves conclusively that his terms have been just and liberal, I shall still think that his course toward me since I have begun to make inquiries has been ungentlemanlike, unfriendly, and calculated to arouse instead of a lay suspicion, and that Mr. Brummel was grossly impolite. So after all, what will be settled by a reference? Nothing but a money affair which indeed, as it involves justice, is much, but as it does not involve regard, is little. However, integrity is all the world wide from and more than good manners. I will not send for any account or money, either. I let a friend have my money for a few months to accommodate him, so that I am penniless again. But I can borrow plenty, and Fred and Fritz are as good as new milch cows in a house. Why I am in such a hurry to write is that I have a letter from Hyperion this morning, in which he seemed to think you would be the proper person to act for Mrs. S rather than Sir Matthew Hale, who is occupied with the weightier matters of the law. Now I do not want you to act for her. It would look as if you made it a personal matter, as if we were persecuting Mr. Hunt, which is not true. Mrs. Blank's affair is as entirely different from mine as if I did not know her at all. I will let you know as soon as I hear from Mr. Hunt. What day did you see, Mr. Edwards? I had a letter yesterday from Smile Legs conjuring me to write for the heretic, and offering me good pay, but not stating what. I have not answered it yet. I am in a straight patwixt to, not to say half a dozen, if BNH send to me, how will it do for you to come down? I will pay your fare, and you can board round. Mr. Dane to MN, August fourteenth. How foolish in you to expect Mr. Hunt to make you any such proposition. He never will, though Mr. Edwards seems sure he will. What do you care when he called? Call it the day before I wrote last. One little matter of business. You request me not to act for Mrs. S. If you expect me not only to transact your business, but also not to transact any for anybody else, you will see the necessity of your charging yourself with the support of my family, largely dependent on my business income for their thrice daily bread. As to writing for the heretic, you doubtless desire my opinion, though diffidence or something prevents your saying so. If it was not a dream of yours that they offered you a million, tell them you will accept the proposition. If you don't publish something soon, I have no doubt you will have a congestion of the intellect. The respectability is nothing compared with the heretic. As you write under your own signature, you will not be responsible for the rest of the paper. You want the pay to lend to your friends who will increase as your capacity to lend is known to increase. And now fare well, and don't expect any such letter from Hunt, though he may probably write something. Mr. Dane to M.N., August 21. What did you send Mrs. Blank's letter to me for if you don't want me to have anything to do with her affairs? Still, almost some, I am somewhat of a man, and although forbidden to advise Mrs. Blank, am interested in general history. You did not promise to tell me how you disperse your money, and what good can it do for me to know that you have thrown it into the sea or laid it up where mobs and rust do not corrupt. You are not fit to make loans as matter of business, as perhaps I intimated to you soon after our chase after that hundred dollars which was in your basket. I hope you will help all you can. There is no better use for money, when one has plenty of it, and I trust your efforts in behalf of young doctors and things will be sanctified to there and your everlasting good. Just as sending for B&H's account, I have no expectation that they will take any notice of Mr. Edward's advice or make you any proposition. The question is, do you mean to take just what they say, or do you propose to insist on more than a fifteen cents per copy? As you don't, and to won't take my advice and make them do right, you must decide what you will do. Come in to Mr. Dane, August 22nd. Why I sent you the letters was because I was interested in the case, and what I am interested in it is proper you should be likewise. All is, I don't want you to loom up as our advocate, but if you know the circumstances you may, perhaps, in a quiet way, keep her from falling into a ditch. And so you, being wise as a serpent, and I harmless as a dove, we may perhaps circumvent those wicked and unprofitable servants. Moreover, as you have already observed, the case does bear directly on mine. Not only do they profess themselves willing to compromise with Mrs. Blank on ten percent, but in this letter they say that even B now has only ten percent. From which I infer that he has had more, but Mr. Hunt in this house told me that they did by me just as they did by B. Now, I do not feel disposed to let the past go. They have not done by me as they have done by others. Why would it not do for you to make the proposal to them since they do not make it? I would just as soon make it, if you say so. Perhaps it would come best for me in a letter to be delivered by you. I have no sensitiveness in whatever about it. I am as hard as steel towards them. They are so bungling that I could find it in my heart to be indignant. I do not propose to insist on ten percent to the extent of taking my books away from them, but I am ready to propose a reference. If they agree to it, I think it would be a good plan to find out what is the custom of other publishers, troubadours, for instance, and a few more of the leading ones. I will also get one or two more of B. and H.'s authors. You see, I am prepared to do now what you wished me to do long ago, but do not plume yourself on that fact, for the timing of a thing may be as strong a test of wisdom as the doing of it. I must keep you in proper subjection at any cost. Mr. Heath, of the ancient and honourable, came down to see me Tuesday, but I was away. Three hundred dollars for what I can do is more than five thousand for what I cannot—Monday morning. It has all come to me as clear as day what to do. You find out when the price of the books went above a dollar fifty cent. Until then, ten percent and fifteen cents were the same thing. In seventeen sixty-three they had not gone up. Then cipher out from my accounts precisely how much is do me and all the books at ten percent. Then send the papers to me, and I will have Fritz approve your figures. Fritz is being good at figures. Then I will write to Mr. H., saying I have been made acquainted with Mrs. Blank's affairs, and that he offers her ten percent, or a reference, and that I wish he would make me the same offer. You shall see the letter, and you will see that it will be very wise, and I don't see how he can reject, and I think he will pay the arrearage. I will tell him exactly what is due according to my thinking, and if he sees the sum all reckoned up for him, he would rather pay it than have any more fuss. Probably the reason he has not paid before is that it was such a hard sum to do. He must see that I shall be a thorn in his side as long as I live, and we, all of us, live to be eighty. M. N. to Mr. Hunt, as of reference to, in the preceding letter. On the third of August I went on a visit to Mrs. Blank, and there learned for the first time that her relations with you were not satisfactory to herself. Since then she has reported to me somewhat of her proceedings, and among other things that Mr. Edward says that you say that even B now has but ten percent. But I understood you to say the last time you were here that you did by B just as you did by me. Also Mr. Edward says that you are quite willing to pay Mrs. Blank ten percent, or to refer the matter to disinterested persons for decision. I understood from you when the second contract was made that you were going to do by all just as you proposed to do by me. I understood when you were here that you had done by all just as you had done by me. But Mr. Edward's reports you to have said that you pay B ten percent, and are willing to pay Mrs. Blank ten percent. G says you pay F ten percent, and G says you pay her ten percent. Why then should you not pay me ten percent? You have paid only six and two-thirds and seven and one-half percent on a large part of the books. So long as the price of the books was $1.50, ten percent and fifteen cents were the same. After the price went up they were not the same. The difference it would not be hard for you to ascertain from your books and this difference I believe you ought to pay me. If you think you ought not, have you any objection to refer the matter to disinterested persons of good character and capacity? Of course I know that legally I have no right to go behind a contract and therefore no legal claim upon you for additional money on those books that are named in the contract. Depends of Mr. Dane to M.N. September 5. And so you have sent your letter. Much good may it do you. My private opinion is that you won't give much of a reply. All the money you will make out of the frolic is that possibly they will allow you ten percent or more on future sales. As to the past, the woodchuck left that hole when you so verdantly assured Mr. H. that you had no idea of making any claims for arrears, and any amount of barking, pardon me, but the unity of the figure must be maintained at any cost, will not scare out another animal. Man is not a rhinoceros that his skin should be pervious, and your arrows will wrinkle in the firm skin of being H. But business is business, and though a profit spake unto them from above, a larger louder profit speaks to them from below. By the way, don't consider my fees contingent on their arrearages. Arrearages don't maintain families. I want to see you. Perhaps you will come over and get that money from B and H for arrearages, but don't wait for that. M. N. to Mr. Dane, September 7. It is easy to see from the alter tone of your letters that you consider my case hopeless. Formerly you were different and sympathetic. Now wounded dignity forbids me to say what you are, but I repeat, with Mrs. Porcupine Temper in the reading-book, never man laughed at the woman he loved. As long as you had the slightest remains of regard for me, you could not thus make me an object of ridicule. Happy! Happy, Mrs. Granby! I wonder, however, that you should not have taken warning from the great failure of Louise Napoleon, an entomax million, and waited till I was actually overcome before you waxed fat and kicked. The figure may seem rude, but, besides being a poset, it is scriptural. I wish you were susceptible to ideas. You pounced down with melancholy persistency on the fact that I assured Mr. Hunt I had no idea of making any claims for arrearages, which, by the way, is no fact at all. What I assured him was that I had no intention of taking my books out of his hands. That is what I meant by not meddling with the past. Nor had I, nor have I now even. But never mind that. The point is—now, do squinny up your eyes and try to see it. There's a deer. You cannot think how nice it feels not to be stupid. The point is, when I told Mr. Hunt that, or when I talked with him about it, he assured me that he had done by others just as he had done by me. I had never investigated his dealings with other writers, except blank. What you and I looked into was the way of other publishers with their writers. Did not you yourself, violating all the commandments that one fell swoop, say that other writers of B and H, sharing my misery, took off the—the—the—curse—of imposing on unsuspecting innocence? Well, then, so I concluded my strength was to sit still, and still accordingly I sat, till I found they had not done by their other writers as they had by me, and then up I sprang again. Now, it seems to me that I have a right to open the case all new. See here, let us put it scientifically. PART ONE Unexpressed basis of operations B and H will do as well as other publishers. As a tamed fact, they don't. Result I fly until our rage. PART TWO Their assurance they have the same rule for all and believe it to be the best for all me included. Result second I am calmed, if not convinced. PART THREE Unexpected development. They do not have the same rule for all but make invidious distinctions, contrary to their own direct assertions, and I am invidiously distinguished. Result, seven spirits more wroth than the first, and the fat in the fire. They have not answered my letter which I sent a week ago last Saturday. It is their way of doing business, namely, not doing it. I shall not write again. What I think should be done next is for you to call upon them and make a proposal of reference and form, if there is any such thing. What I wish decided is, not future percentage merely, but past percentage, whether my claim for ten percent on all past sales is or is not founded in or on equity. If you are present, they must make some reply. If they have sent, the Troja may be comprehended in a new say. If they refuse, we will consider as to the next thing to be done, but find that out first. If you don't understand this, just say over the multiplication table two or three times, and it will clear you up like an egg shell. The figure supposes that you are a pot of coffee. Your candid opinion of my letter, as compared with Mrs. Blanks, is undoubtedly just as well as candid. She is a very fine woman, far my superior, and looks upon this affair quite as wisely as I. But if I think the same as she does, of course it helps her. I wish I did know how to advise her, but I don't. And you would not quit me if you did not think I was going by the board. She is a lovely woman, and it is wicked in them to make her so much trouble. I suppose I was born for storms, and so it is not so sacrilegious to reign and hail and thunder on me. But if you don't roar me gently, I will change lawyers, and then what is to keep you from the work-house? I had a letter to Dave from Hawkers, asking me to let them publish a book for me. They say they think they can make the results every way satisfactory. I talked with Confucius about my letter to Mr. Hunt. In fact, I talk with anybody now, entertain my visitors with the correspondence. If you don't wish to wait on Mr. Hunt with my proposal, say so. I would invite you down here to talk it over, but there is nothing in the house to eat but a lamb's tongue and a half and a pot of lard. My housekeeper has disappeared, and the season is over. Even the hens have stopped laying. A friend who came Friday and stopped till to-day took the precaution to bring a pair of chickens with him. I do not mean this as a hint, but as my woman is gone, I will remark that unless you are fond of fowl al-aram, you had better roast your chickens before you come. As you said nothing about the particular point in the blank letter, I suppose your brain is as blank on the subject as mine. But I have not that inordinate love of brilliancy that I cannot open my mouth unless I expect diamonds to drop out. I am meekly content if only pebbles fall for paving-stones to feet that I love. Great applause. Mr. Dane to M. N. September 9. As a general rule or fact or thing, when a lawyer takes a view of the case less hopeful than the clients and presents the difficulties, the client suspects that the lawyer is indifferent to his interest, or bribed by the other side. Anything rather than that his case is hopeless. Still, the lawyer must be true. He can't do otherwise. Riyadh Kalaim. Here follow questions. You say now I propose a reference. Are you willing I should write to be an H, and say that you have placed with me, or with R and me, for we are partners in all law business and have no separate names as lawyers, your claim for arrearages, with instructions to enforce them by law. If you are, I want the Premier's opinion of the matter, and if we think you have a case, we will proceed. Now that you, after referencing Mr. H to me as your friend, and what has transpired under that arrangement, have had a personal interview with him, which you announced to your friends as a pacification, and have opened a new correspondence with him, proposing a reference, there is embarrassment all around. My office, a friend or mediator, they will say, is finished. They cannot be expected to deal with you and me both. I think if they do not notice your proposition, we should make no further move unless it is to be followed by legal proceedings if necessary. There is no force of fitness and a proposition from me, unless we have something besides wooden guns behind it. Now I wish you would come and see me. I don't eat raw chickens, so I can't go there. Here there are good visuals. As Mrs. Blank's case bears on yours, it concerns me no further, except to save you from conspicuous folly in your attempts to help. Mrs. Blank has Mr. Edwards for her friend, adviser, and legal counselor. And although she is worrying his life out by constantly tweeting him of his folly, and the contract he made as administrator, she wants no other. He is only skin and bone, poor man, and would die gladly, except for fear of meeting Blank in some place where suicide is impossible, and twelve cents of volume will sound forever in his ears. If B and H do not reply to your last letter, you may depend upon it that nothing but legal suasion will move them. This is not cross, though it seems so. I am your very amiable. From B and H to M ends, September 8. Your letter of 29th Ultimo, addressed to our Mr. Hunt, was duly received, and we now beg to reply on his behalf and that of the firm. In your letter you assume that we have but one set of terms with the various authors whose works we publish. In this you are in error. What we pay to any individual author is a matter quite between him or her and ourselves, and it is not our custom to make one author the criterion for another. Many elements enter into the case that would make a uniform rate impracticable. Independently of other considerations, the varying cost of manufacture caused by different styles of publication would alone preclude such an arrangement. We must therefore decline to admit such an argument into the case. We have given our reasons in justification of our course towards you and full, and we see no occasion for repeating them here. As they were unsatisfactory to you, we offered, on May 29 last, in a letter to your attorney, Mr. Nathan Dane to relinquish at a fair price the plates and stock to any publisher whom you might prefer. This offer we now respectfully renew. Touching arbitration. We may say that at an earlier stage of the proceedings we should have been willing to submit the matter to that test. At present, however, we do not wish to do so. M. N. to Mr. Dane, September 11. I am very glad you did not go to be in H's, as the day after my letter to you went I received one from them saying, In your letter, etc. As the proceedings have been of an entirely private nature without any cost of money, and with the outlay of but a few pages of note paper on their part, I do not see why the question of time is so important. What I propose now to do is to have you, if you see no objection, send them by mail the note which I enclosed to you for them. For proceedings I cannot, for a moment, think of instituting. Even if I should gain the case it would be at a cost altogether too great. I think it would be far wiser for me to go on winning new laurels than to spend my energies in trying to pick up the withered twigs of last year's growth. The figure I perceive has serious defects, but you don't, so we will let it pass. I think now the whole thing would be far better be suffered to remain quiet. I shall be gathering facts which will one day take shape, but I do not know what. Knowledge, however, is always useful, and certainly one cannot move an army unless one has an army. So I suppose there is no need of answering your other questions. I think it is as well to let the books be where they are. Unless I find there is more advantage to be gained by a removal than I can see, the game would not be worth the candle. I feel more satisfied than I have done at any time since the trouble began. Although child was yet alive, I fasted and whipped. But now he is dead. Wherefore should I fast? There are fusel to refer seems to put me in open seas again. You say you are not cross, and I know you tried hard not to be. In fact, you have been an angel of patience all through, and I mean to reward you by conducting you honorably through some difficult hell gate of your own. I use the term in a marine and figurative sense. From the beginning of your letter, I infer that you thought my last letter found some fault with you client-wise. I cannot recall the letter enough to know what may have given rise to the feeling, but I assure you nothing was farther from the truth, and nothing can be more friendly and helpful than your whole course towards me has been. I shall never cease to hold it in grateful remembrance until you offend me, and then it will crisp up like flax in the flames, and I shall bear down on you just as heavily as if you had never done me a good turn in your life. Such alas is human nature. M.N. to B.N.H. September 11. I received your letter of the eighth instance, declining arbitration. I suppose, therefore, the only resource left me is the arbitration of public opinion. The argument which you declined to admit into the case was introduced there by Mr. Hunt. I recognize with you its disastrous effects, and applaud your prudence in excluding it. Bring your offer to sell the books to another publisher. I may say that as the cream of their sale is already gone, I do not see the brilliant advantage to be derived from taking the skim milk to another publisher. I will, however, consult my board of attorneys. Pray, do not suppose I limit myself to one, and beg you, meanwhile, to accept my thanks for the benefit you designed me. Will you have the goodness to send me my accounts for the last half year? I suppose this was the end of it, but was surprised by a letter of September 14 saying, We have your letter of the eleventh instance. We think no occasion for arbitration in the matters that issue between us need ever have arisen. And we think now that a formal arbitration, as a means of settling the existing difficulties, would not prove a suitable or satisfactory method either to you or to us. We wish, however, to deal with you in a spirit of entire fairness, and we therefore propose another method, which will answer the same end in a much better way. Let us find a proper person whose relations to both parties are such as to fit him to act as a confidential friend and advisor in the case. Let us confide the entire case in all its bearings to his intercession and abide by his judgment. We have in mind a gentleman who, as we believe, would be in every way suitable and satisfactory to both. Samuel Rogers Esquire of this city. We understand Mr. Rogers to be a warm friend of yours, and we know him to be a just man, a sound judgment, and capable of taking a comprehensive view of the whole matter. If Mr. Rogers will accept at the friendly office, we are quite ready to meet him in all fairness and condor, to open our books and accounts to his inspection. MN to BNH, September 16. Permit me to acknowledge the reception of your letter of the fourteenth instance. I cannot, at present, give your proposal. I believe I said proposition, but proposal must be the right word, sufficient consideration to reply to it. But I will do so as soon as possible. Meanwhile, may I ask you to send me my accounts for the last six months? I suppose they can be made up independently of the question at issue between us. I most emphatically agree with you in the opinion that no occasion for arbitration need ever have arisen. MN to Mr. Dane, September 17. I thought I had pronounced my valedictory. But coming home after a few days' absence, I find the following note from BNH, then follows a copy of their last letter. Now, this is a move which I do not understand. Why should they have declined so decidedly my proposal, and after they had received my note, why should they up and make another which, for all I see, amounts to the same thing? I am inclined to accept the proposal, though I don't see why they should not have accepted mine. Would not, Mr. Rogers, be a good man? Isn't it vexing to have Monjour Tonsu come up again? Mr. Dane to MN, September 21. God moves in a mysterious way, et cetera. BNH's proposition does not much surprise me, though it is an entire change of base, not to say baseness. They now propose exactly what I wanted at first, a reference to some fair man. And had I made a list of a half dozen for them to choose from, Mr. Rogers would probably have been one of them. He is quite deaf, but trans acts business, and it is for him to say whether he is fit to hear the matter. Of course, you are at liberty to name another or others. I have great confidence that any man of such a character will do what he thinks is just. Now, let me say this is getting to be a serious matter, and though you may doubtless look on it as very plain, you may be much embarrassed before you are through. I do not see how you can decline their offer, which is precisely your own, if you took the formality out as I suggested. I doubt now whether BNH will not find some way to avoid a hearing. I think you would better accept their offer, but with limitations that shall hold them somewhere. In any reference of this sort, it will be understood that you may have counsel and witnesses, unless the idea is excluded by agreement. You see, I bear your burdens almost instinctively. In fact, I fear to trust you alone. You being, after all, but a poor little crater, bless you. MN to Mr. Dane, September 23. Your letter did me heaps of good yesterday. Mr. Robertson promises to find out the ways of the Corinthian publishers, and write or tell me. What I want to do, if I do anything, is to make out a written statement, as you suggest, but appear only by that and you. I don't want myself to go on the stage. I should injure the case more than I should help it. Everything that is not in writing, you know as well as I, and I think it would be far better for me to stay at home, the sweet safe corner by the household fire, behind the heads of the children. La. In every other suggestion I agree with you. I could make my statement, send it to you for decision and presentation, notify them of my acceptance and readiness, and then let the union slide. Did I tell you I had a nice note from Longinus? He wants to talk with me about this, and he thinks authors ought to have an understanding that, generally with B and H, he has had such and such arrangements, but he marks that whatever arrangement you make, the publisher generally gets the lion's share. Now, do you think there is any hurry? If not, and as they have wandered at their own sweet will hit or two, I think I might take my turn now. Do you think it will be worthwhile for me to give up my visit? During the uncertainty of man, I should say not. Mr. Dane to M.N. September 24 There is no reason why you should worry about your B and H matter. They have not been in great haste even to answer your letters. Wherefore, although I shall be glad to see you very soon, you may take your own time. And by thinking, perhaps, add a cubit to your mental stature. I am not quite sure you can be excused from being present. You can, however, fortify or fictify yourself with Fritz or Fred. Now write down your claims against B and H like a lawyer. About this time the Athenian press seemed to have been seized with an unwanted interest in the book trade, and began to break out in sapient and significant little paragraphs like the following, which I copy from the Athenian Tribune of September 30, 1768. Book Publishing There is no class of business so liable to misconstruction and misunderstanding as that of a publisher of books. It is difficult for an author to understand the business aspects of publishing a book. In the first place, the expenses of composition, correcting, stereotyping, paper, printing, and binding are very large, compared sometimes to the size of the book. Then the advertising bills and two or three hundred gratuitous copies for notice and review must be added to the cost of publication. Then of course, store rent, clerk hire, and packing expenses, including paper, twine, and boxes, should be reckoned as part of the cost of getting up an edition of a book, so that in most instances the sale of two or three thousand of a new work hardly pays the publisher for the labor and capital included in the outlay. Now all this, the author, unless he or she happened to understand the business thoroughly, rarely comprehends. The elder John Murray, one of the most honorable and generous of publishers, used to say that an author who thoroughly understood all the intricacies and expenses of issuing a book from the press, and properly launching it into the hands of the public, was as rare a prize to find as a phoenix or a unicorn. Yes. When I came to reflect upon the matter, the proposal of B and H did not seem so much like my own as it had at first appeared. Partly, perhaps, I feared that the Greeks even bearing gifts. And if the two plans were in substance the same, why did they suggest one so soon after rejecting the other? If they were not the same, the difference would not be likely in my favor. The superficial thinker might suggest that the person to judge whether formal arbitration would be satisfactory to me was myself. As I had proposed it, the information from Azur's B and H, and it would not be satisfactory to me, seemed to be premature. Not to say super-erogatory, but they not only set aside formal arbitration and brought up a confidential friendly plan, not with the suggestion that it might, but with the succinct assertion that it would answer the same end in a much better way. They also chose the confidential friend themselves. And this friend was a gentleman with whom I had no acquaintance, whom I had never so much seen, and of whom my personal knowledge was confined to the interchange of some half-dozen letters. Now a man may have a very high reputation, and be a very superior person, yet when you want a confidential friend, you can hardly take him, unless you had, at least, a passing acquaintance with him. Perhaps Mazur's B and H's endorsement of any one as a just man ought to be enough. Though under the circumstances, it reminds one of the convicts in the main state prison who drew up resolutions against capital punishment. But regarding the confidential friendly way of doing business, I had become thoroughly disenchanted. It was confidential friendliness that made the trouble, and I was not homopathically inclined. I languished for a little distrustful business accuracy, and cried, Save me from my friends, or rather, from Mazur's B and H's friends. What philosopher was it who maintained that life and death are the same? Why do you not kill yourself? Ask the skeptic. Because they are the same. If it was of no importance to Mazur's B and H whether we had one man or two, I would have two, since it was of no importance. If it was important to them that we should not have two, then I would have two, because it was important. MN to B and H, near the last of October. I accept your proposal that the matter at issue between us should be submitted to Mr. Samuel Rogers for decision with this modification, that Mr. James Russell of Staten be associated with him. If they have any difficulty in coming to an agreement, let us empower them to select a third person. I will present my statement at any time that suges yours and their convenience. Permit me, however, to suggest that it is just as much work for me to prepare my case for two or three persons as it is for two or three thousand. And after all, nobody can know it better than you. You know precisely what I want, simply ten percent. And you know also on what grounds I base my claims. Would it not be less troublesome to you, as well as infinitely less disagreeable to me, for you to decide the matter yourselves at once, rather than refer it to others, who, after the most careful study, can only learn what we already know? We shall also thereby avoid a publicity which is utterly disagreeable to me, which can hardly be attractive to you, and which, beginning with two, will end no one knows where. Count Perry and Company, formerly B&H, to MN, November 9. The preoccupation incident to the recent change in our firm, of which we sent you a notice, has prevented our giving your proposal due consideration earlier than now. We proposed Mr. Samuel Rogers' name, with the thought that he was a man who would be in every way satisfactory to both parties, and who would act rather in the capacity of a friendly mediator than of a formal arbitrator. Our objection to the addition of Mr. James Russell is that by adding him we return to the idea of settling differences by a formal arbitrator, which we always objected to. We should prefer to submit the entire matter to Mr. Rogers alone, as we proposed. Still, we are desirous of having the matter settled justly and equitably, but if you prefer to have more than one person, we are willing that Mr. Russell, of whom we know nothing except by reputation, should be added, provided a third person shall be joined with a two, who shall be a practical publisher and a bookseller. We would name a gentleman who would be perfectly capable of appreciating all the points connected with the case, and whom, in conjunction with the two already named, we are willing to submit it. Mr. Henry Murray, firmly a partner in the publishing firm of Constable and Sons, and now the head of the firm of Murray and Blakeman. Mr. Murray is a highly honorable man, and from his many years of experience fully qualified to understand the case. If you are willing to submit the case to these three gentlemen for decision, we shall await your and their pleasure as to time. Come in to H. P. and Company, November 17. Your letter of November 9 has been forwarded to me from Athens. Your notice of the change in the firm was probably sent as or, and has not reached me. I did not know of the change when my letter was written. In proposing Mr. Russell I did not design to return to formal arbitration. I was, and am, quite willing to settle it by confidential friendliness. Only I do not wish the friendliness to be all on one side. Mr. Rogers is your friend, but I never saw him, cannot judge if his fitness to act in such a matter, and therefore could not put implicit faith in his conclusions. I wish to associate with him a man whom I do know, on whose conclusions I could rely. You say you know nothing of Mr. Russell except by reputation. Or do I know anything of Mr. Rogers except by reputation? You desire to join with him, Mr. Murray, of the firm of Murray and Blakeman, a gentleman whom you know so well that you vouch for his character and capacity, but whom I never saw, whom I scarcely know even by reputation, but of whom I do know this. Soon after the publication of The Rights of Men, the firm of which he is the head, issued an advertisement of one of their publications by Reverend Bishop Burnett, in which, by detaching sentences from The Rights of Men, they made me speak in the highest praise of Bishop Burnett's book, whereas in truth I had spoken with the greatest censure. You say that Mr. Murray is a highly honorable man, but I say that this was a highly dishonorable proceeding. Observe now the position you take. You are not even willing to trust my friend, joined with your friend, but you want me to trust to your friend alone. Secondly, you are not willing to refer to the arbitrator, a lawyer, whom you have selected, and the arbitrator, a lawyer whom I have selected, and the third person whom they too shall select, but you wish yourself to select the third person, and the person you select as a man of your own trait, a man of your intimate acquaintance, a man whom I never saw, and of whom personally I only know that he has been guilty of trickery toward me. If it is to be settled by confidential friendship, you wish to choose the confidential friend. If by formal arbitration, you wish to choose two out of three of the arbitrators. You consider Mr. Rogers quite capable of settling the matter alone, but incapable of settling it in connection with a friend of mine, unless another friend of yours be joined with him. I am quite willing to meet you on the confidential friendly platform, or on the formal arbitration platform. But if the former, which I also prefer, I wish to have a share in the confidential friendship. If the second, I wish the arbitrators to be selected in a regular way, each party choosing one, and those two selected choosing a third. You can ascertain for Mr. Rogers whether he has any objection to confidential consultation with Mr. Russell. So far as a practical publisher or bookseller is concerned, you can state the case yourselves to these gentlemen. Or you can bring Mr. Murray or any other person you choose before them. You must assume that they are sufficiently bare-minded to judge according to facts. Else there is no use in having any judgment at all. And Mr. Murray can present the facts as witness quite as well as if he were arbitrator. HP and Company to MN, November 20. The desire which you impute to us of having a one-sided settlement, or of referring the matter at issue between us to any confidential friend of your own, has never entered our thoughts. We named Mr. Rogers in the first instance because we thought he was a warm personal friend of your own, and one in whom you could put unhesitating confidence. We never had a word with him on the subject in any way. As for Mr. Murray, we certainly have no desire to press him or any other person not agreeable to you. We very decidedly prefer that one person shall take cognizance of the matter rather than two or three. And to show that we do not desire that the person chosen shall be a partisan of our own, we suggest that the matter be fully submitted to the friendly offices of Mr. Henry Burke of Corinth. We do not know Mr. Burke personally, and have never had any relations with him except a correspondence which he initiated several days ago. If he is willing to act in the matter, you will accept any decision he makes. MN to HP and Company, November 23. Your letter of November 20 reached me Saturday night. So far as it disclaims any undue partisanship in selecting Mr. Rogers, it is germane to the case. I take the earliest opportunity to thank you for the disinterested kindness to me which governed your choice. I was not before aware of it, or I should have been earlier in my acknowledgment. The remainder of your letter you will pardon me for saying is entirely irrelevant. The question of one or two is no longer open. We have already agreed upon two, and the question now is concerning a third. The point to be decided is simply this. Will you or will you not refer the matter to the friendly mediation or the formal arbitration of Mr. Rogers and Russell and a third person to be selected by them in case a third person shall be necessary? HP and Company to MN, November 28. So our statement that the question of one or two persons is no longer open, and that two have already been agreed upon, and the question now is concerning a third, is not correct. We have not agreed to refer the matter to Mr. Rogers and Russell, except with our proposed addition of Mr. Murray, which addition you did not approve. By your nonapproval of him the matter was thrown back to the original proposal to refer it to one person, and in that posture of affairs we must consider that our proposal of Mr. Brooke as that person was strictly relevant. But in all this correspondence we seem to be playing at cross purposes, neither arriving at a result nor succeeding in understanding each other. You are no doubt as tired of this as we are. A reference, should we ever reach it on mutually satisfactory terms, would take a long time and be a tedious mode of settlement. Would it not be better to close the matter at issue finally by a definite proposal which cannot be misunderstood? We estimate the time that would be occupied by a reference and the trouble and annoyance it would occasion at $500, and we propose to send you our check for that sum that this unprofitable controversy may be closed. And we further propose to pay you hereafter 10% of the retail price in cloth for all copies sold of your various books now published by us. Should you accept this offer, please advise us, and we will send you check and draw new contracts at once. I think, notwithstanding the modest disclaimer of Mr. Hunt Perry and Company, we were getting to understand each other perfectly, except that so far from becoming tired of the controversy, I was only just warming up to it. MN to HP and Company, December 8th. When I pointed out to you the impropriety of your imposing Mr. Murray upon me as arbitrator, you've replied that you did not wish to press Mr. Murray. You now say that Mr. Murray was essential to the arbitration, either he was or he was not. If he was, then, as I said in a previous letter, you refused arbitration unless you could choose two out of three of the arbitrators, and those two friends of your own and strangers to me, and one of them guilty of trickery towards me. If Mr. Murray was not essential, then, as I said in my last letter, you had already agreed upon two, and the only question is concerning a third. Do I understand you to decide that you refuse arbitration unless you have power to make Mr. Murray third arbitrator? The reference, which seems to you so tedious, seems to me a relief from tedium. Your definite proposal proposes to buy me off from arbitration, but does not touch my claim to 10% on past sales. I do not even consider it, much less accept it. The cost of arbitration would, I suppose, be defrayed as usual by the losing party, and amounts to hardly it any more than one sixth a part of the sum which I believed to be due to me. MN to HP and Company, December 21. A week ago, last Tuesday, I sent you a letter from Paris, to which I have received no answer. To guard against any misunderstanding arising from a lost letter, will you be so good as to inform me by the bearer whether you have received such a letter from me, and if so, whether you have replied to it? They evidently thought the enemy was preparing to move immediately upon their works, and they replied at once. We duly received your communication alluded to in your note of this morning. Owing to the absence of one of the members of our firm, and the great pressure of business incident to the season of the year, we have not had an opportunity, since its receipt, to give the question at issue the attention it deserves. In a few days you shall hear from us. On the 16th of December appeared another of those paragraphs in the Athenian Gazette, to which I have previously referred. Hitherto the dove had only gyrated against the whole heavens, spreading its white wings to praise of our publishers in general. But now, loving like death, a shining mark, it circled down and settled squarely upon the modest brows of Missouri's bromelain hunt and the following style. Missouri's B&H's Announcements The attractive advertisement of Missouri's B&H, which appears in our column today, is interesting to those who watch the progress of events, as an indication not only of the success which this publishing house has received, but as an evidence of the literary presumasy of the hub. Years ago, when Sophocles, after enjoying the entree into the leading social circles of the city, stalled Athens the modern Eden. Our neighbors of the other cities quoted the remark in derision. Time has proved that the title was not merely complementary. A glance at the list of authors whose works are published by Missouri's B&H will it once surprise those unacquainted with a large number of the Adriatic cutlery, who have residents within the shadows of the Acropolis. The Athenian authors who have had their established headquarters with this publishing house are more widely known and more thoroughly read than any equal number who have acquired literary distinction, while the number of Roman authors who are requested in this county, by Missouri's B&H, include the poet Laureate of Italy and the great master of fiction, Josephus. While we may congratulate the firm upon the success they have achieved in producing the most exquisite illustrated giftbooks of the season, and compliment them upon the topographical execution of all their publications, we think still higher praise is due to the House for their encouragement of Athenian talent, and their rare tact in introducing many who have become popular mainly by the discriminating manner in which they have been ushered into the presence of the reading public. Whatever share of prosperity this publishing house has reached, there are none to attribute it to any narrow or selfish policy. They have dealt with authors of all lands upon the broad ground of mutual benefit, and have never sought to make bread out of other people's brain work and leave the worker without fair compensation. It is a credit to Athens that such an establishment has grown up and flourished in our city. Which reminds me of a royal schoolmaster who taught the village school for several winters in succession, and whose specialty was writing. Years after, if the handwriting of any of his pupils was spoken of, the honest men would reply innocently, yes, he is a very fine writer, very superior. His writing is precisely like mine. Misers, Bremel, and Hunt's authors are the most widely known and the most thoroughly read in the country. And we, who belong to that happy family, feel that the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, and try to look unconscious of our preeminence while we cannot wholly repress a glow of gratification. But what is this? We, or rather you, for just here I find it agreeable to follow the admonition of Mr. Gumpi's mother and get out of the company you have become popular, mainly by the discriminating manner in which you have been ushered into the presence of the reading public. Oh, what a fall is here, my countryman! Imagine the emotions of the bell on being told that the attention and admiration which she fondly supposed had been excited by her wit and beauty were mainly owing to the discriminating manner in which she had been ushered into the ballroom. Some little margin is left for grace of form, loveliness of feature, elegance of dress, but mainly it is the white glove to usher to whom her success is due. There are never wanting persons who, not content with writing history as it is, are always conjuring up what have been if things had happened differently, if Charles I had not lost his head, if Napoleon had beaten at Waterloo, if Booth's pistol had missed fire, events would have gone thus unto thus. Our fruitful field opens before such speculators in the history of our country's literature. Had Mrs. Brummel and Hunt gone into the grocery business, for instance, Homer would have been cobbling shoes and Haverhill, or at most, chronicling a small beer in a country newspaper. Dante would have been a lawyer in chambers, drawing up wills and prodding through deeds, but leaving no footprints on the sands of time. Boccaccio would have been milking cows at Brook Farm, or growing round-shouldered over his desk in the Jerusalem courthouse. Miriam would have been writing children's stories for the little Comerant at fifty cents a column, and, as Uncle Tom's Cabin would never have been built, the South would never have been provoked into rebellion. We should have had no war and no greenbacks, prices would never have risen, ten percent and fifteen cents would have been the same, and we should all have died comfortably in our beds. But it is a theme for lasting gratitude, not only that this house did not go into the cotton trade and sugar line, but also that whatever share of prosperity it has reached, there are none to attribute it to any narrow or selfish policy. It has never sought to make bread out of other people's brain work and leave the worker without fair compensation. But upon what meat hath our Athens Gazette fed, that it is able to make so sweeping a negative, asks the unsanctified heart? By what authority saith these things, and who give it this authority? Has it had personal interviews with all the persons who ever had or sought a business connection with misers, grumble, and hunt, and learned from them that no narrow or selfish policy has ever been attributed to them? Even this would not establish its assertion, but surely nothing less than this would. It does not say that no narrow or selfish policy was ever indulged in, but that nobody so much as attributed to them. Caesar's wife is above suspicion. But has anyone asked Caesar? It is not, of course, to be for a moment supposed to that so great a house as the one in question would ever stoop to manufacture its own puffs, if I may be pardoned at the term. Such a course might benefit their parvaneu harkers and peddlers of books, but not on an hereditary aristocracy like this. Its poet publisher has indeed distinguished himself by other figures than those of the day-book and ledger. But I have never heard that any member of the firm has been ambitious of a place among the prose writers of Greeks. Nor is it, I suspect, any the more to be presumed, because these paragraphs came to me conspicuously marked with the blue and red lines, and superscribed in the handwriting with which many years of correspondence with a firm of B and H had made me familiar. For do we not all, as soon as we see ourselves complemented in the newspaper, send it around to all our friends by the early mail. But I am reminded of a story which I learned and recited many times in school. While the regicides Gough, Whaley, and Maxwell were hiding in Connecticut, a rough fellow came from afar and terrified the simple villagers by challenging them to mortal combat. As they stood pale with consternation, a venerable man, unknown to all, appeared, gravely accepted the challenge, and immediately disappeared. At the appointed time throngs were gathered to witness the conflict. As the clock struck the hour, the mysterious combatant threaded the crowd and took his place in the arena armed only with a broom, and armored with a huge cheese fastened upon his person as a breastplate. The astonished bully began the fight by plunging his sword into the breast, or rather the cheese, of his opponent. The latter responded by dipping his broom into the neighboring mud puddle and giving the bully a gentle swash about the neck. A second lunge into the cheese and the broom went higher, sweeping the fighter's chin. A third, and with a fresh baptism of mud the broom was drawn tenderly over the whole face of the baffled ruffian, who, unused to such warfare, threw down his sword and tear, crying, Who are you? You must be either Jeff Whaley or the devil. Moral. So I, viewing this paragraph and sundry others that follow it, and seeing how finally they are timed to the issues of the contest, cannot avoid the mental soliloquy, brummel and hunt, or planchette. J.S. Perry of the firm of H.P. & Company, to M.N. January 1, 1769. The experience of the past few months suggests that it is likely to take some time to settle the details of the proposed arbitration by correspondence. A personal interview of half an hour would obviate much writing and delay. Will you see me at Zwar at such time next week, after Tuesday, as may be convenient to yourself? M.N. to Mr. Perry. If you really think it worthwhile, by all means come, only the preliminary seem to me so simple that they might almost be left to whistle themselves. I will see you, if you please, at two o'clock p.m. Wednesday the sixth, day after to-morrow. A train leaves the Athens Railroad station, I think, at 12.15. He must leave the train at Zwar. Probably there will be a carriage at the station if you prefer it to walking, but whichever way you come you will wish you had taken the other. M.N. to Mr. Dane. January 4, 1769. Saturday I had a letter from Mr. Perry proposing to come down and arrange with me the preliminaries for, or of, arbitration. I would much rather he should go to you and do it. Still, I fear if I suggest that it will only occasion further delay, and if I can get any hold on them perhaps I had better get it. But I don't know what the preliminaries ought to be. Maybe it is nothing in particular, only arrangements as to time and so forth. Still, if there is anything I should stipulate for, or any boundary lines I ought to draw, or any precautions I ought to take, can you not advise me by letter? If there is any doubt on my part, I shall make no engagements, but say to him frankly, I wish to consult you first, and then I shall come to Athens bright and early, Thursday, and consult you, Nolan's Valens. Mr. Dane to M. N. January 5, 1769. I have a new year to you. My opinion is that Mr. Perry will try to settle matters with you, and have no reference or intervention. If he proposes to arrange a reference, you know what you want and can write it, perhaps, though my honest opinion is you need help. You may call it snubbing, or sneering, or flattery, but my opinion is you are not fit to meet these people in such a matter. Hunt fooled you just as he pleased when he went over, and you wrote me quite a penitent letter, which showed a good heart, but a feeble mind. If you arrange for any reference, they should agree to pay you any amount that may be a judge to be equitably due to you for a rearage of copyright. You are, and etc. But as I have told you, there is not a lawyer in Athens who would undertake personally to manage a controversy of this kind, being himself of the party, and you are not exempt from the laws of gravitation. End of Section 8