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Show 8 ADYERTISEME:NT. ncnccs i if yuu woulrl hope for uuy honest judgments. 'l'hc rc arc very few friends, indeed, to whom you can trust any of your secrets i and this of authorship, is one, which, of all otiJCrs, is lca'it easy to keep. Your friend is vain on your accouut- or on l1is own-which is mucll the most likely-and must blab, with C\'Cn slighter llrccautions than were taken by the barber of King Midas. Even if he honestly keeps your secret, what is tho profit to you in letting it out of your own hands 1 You must employ an agent in finding your way to the press, but this need not be one of those whom you rank among your friends. A business trnnsaction may be kept so~ crct; but a coufidcncc, gratuitously given, is rarely safe. If you reveal a secret, unless from t he necessity of the case, you may rensonaU\y be supposcJ to desire its farther circulation. So friends mostly understand it.-And, do not deceive yourf: iclf with tl1c Hotion, that, by coufiding to tl1e pe rsons ncnrest to you, aud who most share your sympnthies, you ~.:a n possibly de rive any advantage from it. '!'hey can seldom serve you in any way. 'rhey can g ive no help to a reputation which is to l1e founded OH your own real merits; no counsc1, of any value in an art which they themselves do not p rofess, but which they arc still very prone to teach ; exercise no influence which is not apt, in some wny, to 11r0Yc pernicious; and, whether they prnise or blame, arc generally t he worst judges to whom you could submit y our productions. Go to your cook in !Jl'eference. Your friends nlways find your own personulity conflicting, in their minds, with your productions. '['hey ne \·er separate you frolll your writings. ' l'heir personal nnd locnl nssociat ions })erpetnally start up to baffle t he free inlluence of your works upou their thoughts and hearts; aud they weigh your opin ions~ or your imaginntions1 or your designs and inventions, with a continual refer ence to yourself, as you ap1Jear in ordinary society. In society, you arc perlmllS nothing; silent as Gibbon-without any of th e small cl•ange of conversation-t1tat clinking currency 9 which best passes among ordinary p eoplc1 and wllich need not be true coin, at all-though y ou may be able to draw for a thousand pounds: and you thus sociaJly appe~tr at great disadvantage with tho very persons to whom you confide your secret1 and trustingly declare your labors. "\Vlmt cnn be the result 1 Your fricnd 1 who has knQwn you OHiy in socinl relations, is required to feel surprise at yom· perfot·manccs1 or to S!)Cak very qnalificdly of their merits. H e is reduced to this alternativc.If he admits himself to be surprised, it is eq ui valent to confessing that he l1as not had the capncity to discover your peculiar endowment. llis self.-cstecm will oppose any such ndmission, and he dispantges it acco1·dingly. "lie has always known that you had a certain talent;"- " but- it was surely a little too bold of you to undertnke a book!'~ And this will be thought nnd said without any wilful desire to harm; simply from wl1at seems necessary to sclf-rcspc.ct and the mainteuancc of old position and the old social relations. And, do you not sec, tlult, if y ou coutimie presumptuously to write books, it is • }lOssiLle - LaJ·ely possible-that you will outgrow your cil'Clc1 Every cl•atty, conceited, "talking }>Otato" of it, is personally interested in preventing such a growth. The instincts of mediocrity arc always on tiJC watch and easily a larmed; and it perpetually toils to keep down any growth which is calculated to fliug a sltadow over itself. And this is all very natural not to Uc comvlained of, or quarrelled with. 'l'he safest way to avoid m1y of these perils1 and much am10yance, is to keep your secret, and let yout· book find its way alone. Let tho book win the rep utation before you claim the authorship. Of all this, something ltereafter. J\ly own humble experience in authorsh ip, of some twenty-five years growth, will some day f'un1ish ample materials for a volume of literary anecdote, which, 1 pr0111ise the reader, will not be found Jess valuable for irs lessons, because so well calculated to provoke frequent merriment. I slmll make the attempt, in more elaborate pnges1 to J• |