FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101  
102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   >>   >|  
anti-copyright,--Mr. Virgilius Maro, of Mantua-- "Hos ego versiculos _emi_, tulit alter honores." Or, in other words, I pay for every line and letter of Maga, and lo! Mr Bathyllus Reprint, of New York, carries off the sesterces! Think, Godfrey, what a charm of a life this Bathyllus must make of it! His are all the honey, and the bird's nests, the corn-bags, and the fleeces of the Ebony estates; and yet he has no trouble to see his banks furnished with bees, or to preserve game in the brake; no care to drive away crows, or to stifle the blatter of sheep. For him--to descend from the firmament of metaphor, to the plain prose of George Street and Paternoster Row--for him, Mr North inspects boxes of Balaam, with the patience of a proofreader, and deciphers pages of wit and pathos with the perseverance of a Champollion. For him, with each new moon, and punctual to the day, comes forth the Maga of the month, the fruit of incredible diligence, and the flower of admirable skill. For him the foreign purveyor of all he lives by pays down the golden _honorarium_, fifty guineas for the sheet, that he may have the whole for less than fifty pence. For him--the same benevolent provider takes pains to silence, by the same metallic spell, ten thousand other claims and clamours, contingent to each lunation of Maga. All things work for him! For him the steamer ploughs Atlantic surges; and for him, when she gains her port, two hundred miles of wire are put into galvanic tremor, bidding him prepare his covers, and rally his compositors. It is there that Reprint, with a grateful sense (perhaps) of all that has been done for him, and a still more gratifying sense of the very little that remains for him to do, finds himself called to bestir from a fortnight's nap, and proceed to do that little. With railway speed, and thunder step, the Express of Harnden brings to his hand almost the only emigrant original of _Blackwood_ that ever touches these occidental shores. No prosy correspondence--no botheration manuscript--no rejectable contribution--but the choicest literary matter that the genius of the British empire can furnish, all picked, packed, and laid at his feet, in fair white printed copy, without pains and without cost! Another's all the toil--his, all the profits! In a turn or two of his hand the American market is supplied. Sure sale--no risk--all clear gains, and quick returns! I am sure Mr Bathyllus Reprint must be the happiest
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101  
102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Bathyllus

 

Reprint

 

proceed

 

railway

 

called

 
remains
 

bestir

 

fortnight

 

gratifying

 
prepare

Atlantic

 
ploughs
 

surges

 

steamer

 

contingent

 

clamours

 

lunation

 

things

 

hundred

 

covers


thunder

 

compositors

 

bidding

 

tremor

 

galvanic

 

grateful

 

emigrant

 

printed

 

Another

 

profits


packed

 
picked
 

returns

 

happiest

 

market

 
American
 

supplied

 

furnish

 

Blackwood

 

touches


shores

 

occidental

 

original

 

claims

 

Harnden

 

Express

 
brings
 

matter

 

literary

 

genius