I have read with peculiar pleasure your ingenious and ingenuous letter. It exactly portrays the ardour of mind and the frankness which always accompany true genius.
It concerns me that I am forced to
reduce to pounds, shillings, and pence, every proposition like yours—that
all the speculations of genius, when they lie in my counting house, become the
subject of arithmetical calculation—that if, when tried by this
unaccommodating standard, they do not promise to yield a certain rate per cent,
profit, I am led to treat them with cold-
| 250 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
And still I am often (undeservedly) complimented as the most liberal of my trade! as the most enterprizing of all the midwives of the muses!
I am ashamed to say, that the cold-hearted calculations which constantly absorb all my faculties in my own interested concerns, have prevented me from seeing or reading the little work of yours, of whose merit I entertain no doubt, since it is demonstrated arithmetically by the number that has been sold.
I am, therefore, unable to write with precision, being in the practice, in all these matters, of judging for myself; and although I repeat that I have been charmed with the ingenuousness of your letter, yet my prudence gets the better of my politeness, and commands me to see and read before I engage for your new work, unless I had previously been concerned in the sale of the old one, and was well acquainted with its merit and character.
The Reviews I never read, nor would any person, were they acquainted with the corrupt views with which almost every one of them is conducted. If your work has received their praise without its being paid for, your merit must be great indeed, and I shall have reason to be proud of this intercourse.
You can send the MS. through any friendly medium, addressed to me, to the care of Mr. Archer, Dublin, and you can desire him to forward it to me, or bring it with him in his projected journey to London.
| PERIOD OF 1805-5 | 251 |
I assure you I am not used to write such long letters, but this has been extorted from me by the respect with which I feel myself your obliged,
