not cover the whole field of Fabian
doctrine, and in later years schemes were often set on foot for a second
volume dealing with the application of the principles propounded in the
first. But these schemes never even began to be successful. With the
passage of time the seven essayists had drifted apart. Each was working
at the lines of thought most congenial to himself; they were no longer
young and unknown men; some of the seven were no longer available.
Anyway, no second series of Essays ever approached completion.

[Illustration: _From a photograph By Savony of New York_

MRS. ANNE BESANT, IN 1890]

Bernard Shaw was the editor, and those who have worked with him know
that he does not take lightly his editorial duties. He corrects his own
writings elaborately and repeatedly, and he does as much for everything
which comes into his care. The high literary level maintained by the
Fabian tracts is largely the result of constant scrutiny and amendment,
chiefly by Sidney Webb and Bernard Shaw, although the tract so corrected
may be published as the work of some other member.

Although therefore all the authors of "Fabian Essays" were competent,
and some of them practised writers, it may be assumed that every phrase
was considered, and every word weighed, by the editor before the book
went to press.[24]

A circular inviting subscriptions for the book was sent out in the
spring, and three hundred copies were subscribed in advance.
Arrangements with a publisher fortunately broke down because he declined
to have the book printed at a "fair house," and as Mrs. Besant was
familiar with publishing--she then controlled, or perhaps _was_, the
Freethought Publishing Company, of 63 Fleet Street--the Committee
resolved on the bold course of printing and publishing the book
themselves. A frontispiece was designed by Walter Crane, a cover by Miss
May Morris, and just before Christmas, 1889, the book was issued to
subscribers and to the public.

None of us at that time was sufficiently experienced in the business of
authorship to appreciate the astonishing success of the venture. In a
month the whole edition of 1000 copies was exhausted. With the exception
of Mrs. Besant, whose fame was still equivocal, not one of the authors
had published any book of importance, held any public office, or was
known to the public beyond the circles of London political agitators.
The Society they controlled numbered only about 150 members. The subjec