The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-24
John Smith, Esq,
With the Respects of

The AUTHOR.

nm ~ iIlpIs.
Still, as that is a consummation which seems to
run no imminent risk of being contaminated, We
will take heart of grace, and see whether the
grapes that lie beyond our reach NAV not be.
after all, little sour. Even to be printed, is
not unmixed happiness. The Evil One, who
by common testimony, makes printing offices
his peculiar haunt, probably because they are
the strongest foes to his continued reign, takes
malicious and impish delight in running your
finest figures, marring your smoothest lines, and
torturing your sOundest sense. Your courteous
knights are transformed into courtiers," your
radiant suns elongate themselves into arms, y
your rapid thought becomes "yapid " all too
soon, your "menta riches" instead of taking
to themselves wings they are prOverbially
bound to do, melt off the lcarian pinions YOU
have given them, and Subside into inches -
and your own sunny temper catching the in
lection, wakes wrathful and explosive
If your cistern is Ovcr-full, a newspaper is a
very convenient faucet--if YOU can unscrew it.
multitudinOus pipes directed to their sancrtnis,
and the weak, washy, everlasting food" with
which they are inundated but ] would not
hold back on that account. What is the use
OF having newspapers, pray, if you cannot write
for them? Do dry-goods clerks complain be-
cause their counters are continually strewed
with silks and musns-because they are con
stantly obliged to arrange, and derange, and re-
arrange? Why it is their business. 1t is
sign ofprosperity. shop whose shelves were
always in order would be apt to close business
in month and newspaper, which is not
sufficiently alive and active to draw into its
vortex a host of spirits from the vastly deep
,,,,1 4 j
death. Besides, how small a portion of the
whole suffering is borne by the editor. 1t is
absolutely appalling to think of the hopes and
fears, the aspirations and dreams, the anxicties
tears and heart-throbs, the watching, waiting
and disappointment, shut up in the dark
drawers of editorial tables those terrible
Black Holes of Gterature-thoSe undiscovered
bourns whence no article returns - those
"graves without monument" And the worst
OF it is, that IN the great majority of cases the
execution is meritcd. | suppose ii does some
times happen that wheat and chaff are alike
condemned. In fact, know it does IF YOU
should be impertinent, and ask me how know
| should follow the example of the smiling and
dapper AutOcrat of the Breakfast Table, the
selfelected but popuarly-sustained monarch Of
our Unterrifed Democracy, and simply say,
-" Nul,tm tui Regotu." Still, as was remarking
if your poem is not printed, there is presump-
ton, at least, that it was not worth printing.
If you are little inclined to egotiSm, and
tolerably imaginative, you can trick yourself
out in all sorts Of Protean shapes serve yourself
up in as many different DISCUSSES as q French
cook does ragout and, at the same time, pre-
serve the most rigid reticence; because no one
knows how much is memory and how much
is imagination. Or if you have acquired the
habit of entertaining views of things, it gives
you an excellent opportunity to exhibit them !;
and of the many comfortable things in the
world, one of the most comfortable is to give
your views. 1t is so agreeable TO say things,
when you have things to say. Your opinions
may not be very striking, or original, or import
ant still, it is a relief to express them No mat
ter if they have been said fifty times before; you
never said them. They must go through the cru
chile of your brain before they Gan be efficient in
preventing congestion from plethora of ideas.
The stream may have meandered down the
mountains of life a thousand years, and heaped
together priceless diamonds and ingots of gold,
and yet fail in that tertiGzing power more val
liable than ALL till it sweeps along the rich al
luvial deposits that lie III the green meadows
of your own soul 1t does not satisfy your era
wing for the "delicacies of the season." to know
that salmon and peas have been eaten since the
world began.
In so far az literature seems to YOU royal
road to fame and fortune, let me entreat you
not to be deceived. Ifyou havebeen put through
Watts's Sixteen Rules for Gaining knowledge
and Mental improvement as thoroughly as |,
shall not need to say, be not so weak as to i'm
agine that life of learning is life of laziness
and ease" But besides good DR.. Wattss ex-
hortations, the testimony of the great mass of
writer's proclaims,
"Hard the labor, small the gain,
Is in making bread from brainp
have seen. in several modern American nov
els, certain counter statements. Brilliant but
obscure young women are represented as hav-
ing surreptitiously sprung book upon an I'M
suspecting public, and being summarily over
whelmed with "money, and fame, and troops
of" distinguished friends and patrons. / know
that charming Fanny Burney did really SNUG
gle hersEveine into the world without even the
completely of daddy Crisp;" and that there
presently fell upon her listening, straining, but
scarcely expectant ear, rustling among the
mulberry trees coaches blocked up the way to
the circulating libraries Burke sat up all night
to watch the adventures of a young lady upon
her first entrance into the world tops levelled
their glasses women of fashion patronized the
shrinking authoress, and the brutal, benevolent
s'Great Cham" coiled his huge arm thrice about
her slender waist and bound her TO him for
ever. Nor have | any doubt, that, notwith-
stand;n1 Camnhell'S savage toast publishers