“My dear Wilson,—I have a serious piece of business, or I would not bother a letter-hater with an epistle. Murray is going to start a series of publications, half way between a Miscellany (like Constable’s) and an Encyclopædia. There are to be two vols. 12mo, beautifully illustrated, every month: one being historical, biographical, or literary, the other scientific in some way or other. I have agreed to superintend the literary series, and am to have in return one-third of the property. These are circumstances which I have not told to anybody but Scott and yourself. But I have been at work all summer in making arrangements, and I think there are volumes not a few likely to turn out well on the stocks. . .
“Now, if this concern turns out well, it will be a little fortune for me: I am not sanguine, but I do think it is likely to be at least worth something; and I therefore expect with perfect confidence that you will do what you can to assist me. . . .
“I think these are services which you would under similar circumstances expect me to render
which Lockhart had given him. “By all means do what the Emperor” (Mr. Murray) “asks. He is what Emperor Napoleon was not, much a gentleman. . . .” (“Life,” ix. 269.) |
| 46 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
