“. . . . . What really makes me despond is the daily
confirmation I receive of my original apprehension, that the plan and execution
of The
Friend is so utterly unsuitable to the public taste as to
preclude all rational hopes of its success. Much, certainly, might have been
done to have made the former numbers less so, by the interposition of others
written more expressly for general interest; and, if I could attribute it
wholly to any removable error of my own, I should be less dejected. I will do
my best, will frequently interpose tales and whole numbers of amusement, will
make the periods lighter and shorter; and the work itself, proceeding according
to its plan, will become more interesting when the foundations have been laid.
Massiveness is the merit of a foundation; the gilding, ornaments, stucco-work,
conveniences, sunshine, and sunny prospects will come with the superstructure.
Yet still I feel the deepest conviction that no efforts of mine, compatible
with the hope of effecting any good purpose, or with the duty I owe to my
permanent reputation, will remove the complaint. No real information can be
conveyed, no important errors radically extracted, without demanding an effort
of thought on the part of the reader; but the obstinate, and now contemptuous,
aversion to all energy of thinking is the mother evil, the cause of all the
evils in politics, morals, and lite-
| 260 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 35. |
“God bless you!
