cess in immediate prospect would
be more promising; the very difficulty is that you are not--that you
think--that the public must read you _humbly_, confessing that you have
intelligence beyond its own. I said that the general public wants to be
amused: I now add that it dearly desires to be flattered, or at least
allowed to flatter itself. Those people who have no thoughts of their
own are the very ones who hate mortally to admit to themselves that any
intelligence in the world is superior to their own. A noble nature
is indeed never so delighted as when it finds something that may be
lawfully reverenced; but all the ignoble keep up their self-complacence
by shutting their eyes to all superiority.

I state the case strongly, as you will feel it bye and bye. Mind, I am
not a disappointed man; and have met as generous appreciation as I ought
to wish. I am not misanthropic, nor in the least soured. I say all this,
not _against_ the public, but _for_ you.

Now, then, as to the essay. It is rich in thought. Everywhere are the
traces of a penetrating and sincere intellect. Much of the expression
is also good. The faults of it, _me judice_, are as follows: The
introduction I think too long. I should nearly throw away the first five
pages. Your true beginning I think to be near the bottom of the sixth
page, though the _island_ in the middle paragraph of that page is too
fine to be lost. From the sixth to about the twentieth I read with
hearty pleasure. Then begin subordinate essays in illustration of your
main theme. These are good in themselves, but their subordination is a
little obscured. I think careless readers--and most of your readers, be
sure, will be careless--will fail to perceive the connection. You are
younger than I, and will hope more from your readers; but I find even
superior men slow, _slow_, SLOW to understand--missing your point so
often! I think the relationship must be brought out more strongly,
and some very good sentences must be thrown out because they are more
related to the subordinate than the commanding subject. This is about
all that I have to say. Sometimes your sentences are a little heavy, but
you will find, little by little, happier terms of expression. I do not
in the least believe that you cannot in time write as well as I. What I
have done to earn expression I know better than you The crudities that I
have outgrown or outlabored, I also know.

You must be a little less careless about your