The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon | Page 5

merely by my political opinions, but by the
very constitution and habits of my mind. "My whole course of life," I
observed, "has been desultory, and I am unfitted for any periodically

recurring task, or any stipulated labor of body or mind. I have no
command of my talents, such as they are, and have to watch the
varyings of my mind as I would those of a weathercock. Practice and
training may bring me more into rule; but at present I am as useless for
regular service as one of my own country Indians or a Don Cossack.
"I must, therefore, keep on pretty much as I have begun; writing when I
can, not when I would. I shall occasionally shift my residence and write
whatever is suggested by objects before me, or whatever rises in my
imagination; and hope to write better and more copiously by and by.
I am playing the egotist, but I know no better way of answering your
proposal than by showing what a very good-for-nothing kind of being I
am. Should Mr. Constable feel inclined to make a bargain for the wares
I have on hand, he will encourage me to further enterprise; and it will
be something like trading with a gypsy for the fruits of his prowlings,
who may at one time have nothing but a wooden bowl to offer, and at
another time a silver tankard."
In reply, Scott expressed regret, but not surprise, at my declining what
might have proved a troublesome duty. He then recurred to the original
subject of our correspondence; entered into a detail of the various terms
upon which arrangements were made between authors and booksellers,
that I might take my choice; expressing the most encouraging
confidence of the success of my work, and of previous works which I
had produced in America. "I did no more," added he, "than open the
trenches with Constable; but I am sure if you will take the trouble to
write to him, you will find him disposed to treat your overtures with
every degree of attention. Or, if you think it of consequence in the first
place to see me, I shall be in London in the course of a month, and
whatever my experience can command is most heartily at your
command. But I can add little to what I have said above, except my
earnest recommendation to Constable to enter into the negotiation."*
* I cannot avoid subjoining in a note a succeeding paragraph of Scott's
letter, which, though it does not relate to the main subject of our
correspondence, was too characteristic to be emitted. Some time
previously I had sent Miss Sophia Scott small duodecimo American

editions of her father's poems published in Edinburgh in quarto
volumes; showing the "nigromancy" of the American press, by which a
quart of wine is conjured into a pint bottle. Scott observes: "In my
hurry, I have not thanked you in Sophia's name for the kind attention
which furnished her with the American volumes. I am not quite sure I
can add my own, since you have made her acquainted with much more
of papa's folly than she would ever otherwise have learned; for I had
taken special care they should never see any of those things during their
earlier years. I think I have told you that Walter is sweeping the
firmament with a feather like a maypole and indenting the pavement
with a sword like a scythe--in other words, he has become a whiskered
hussar in the 18th Dragoons."
Before the receipt of this most obliging letter, however, I had
determined to look to no leading bookseller for a launch, but to throw
my work before the public at my own risk, and let it sink or swim
according to its merits. I wrote to that effect to Scott, and soon received
a reply:
"I observe with pleasure that you are going to come forth in Britain. It
is certainly not the very best way to publish on one's own accompt; for
the booksellers set their face against the circulation of such works as do
not pay an amazing toll to themselves. But they have lost the art of
altogether damming up the road in such cases between the author and
the public, which they were once able to do as effectually as Diabolus
in John Bunyan's Holy War closed up the windows of my Lord
Understanding's mansion. I am sure of one thing, that you have only to
be known to the British public to be admired by them, and I would not
say so unless I really was of that opinion.
"If you ever see a witty but rather local publication called Blackwood's
Edinburgh Magazine, you will find some notice of your works in the
last