f creative work, that
his cunning began to fail him. Here, for instance, are a few sentences
written to Cadell, his publisher, touching this very point--the
discouragement which James Ballantyne had been pouring on the new
novel. Ballantyne, he says, finds fault with the subject, when what he
really should have found fault with was the failing power of the
author:--"James is, with many other kindly critics, perhaps in the
predicament of an honest drunkard, when crop-sick the next morning,
who does not ascribe the malady to the wine he has drunk, but to
having tasted some particular dish at dinner which disagreed with his
stomach.... I have lost, it is plain, the power of interesting the
country, and ought, injustice to all parties, to retire while I have
some credit. But this is an important step, and I will not be
obstinate about it if it be necessary.... Frankly, I cannot think of
flinging aside the half-finished volume, as if it were a corked bottle
of wine.... I may, perhaps, take a trip to the Continent for a year or
two, if I find Othello's occupation gone, or rather Othello's
_reputation_."[57] And again, in a very able letter written on the
12th of December, 1830, to Cadell, he takes a view of the situation
with as much calmness and imperturbability as if he were an outside
spectator. "There were many circumstances in the matter which you and
J. B. (James Ballantyne) could not be aware of, and which, if you were
aware of, might have influenced your judgment, which had, and yet
have, a most powerful effect upon mine. The deaths of both my father
and mother have been preceded by a paralytic shock. My father survived
it for nearly two years--a melancholy respite, and not to be desired.
I was alarmed with Miss Young's morning visit, when, as you know, I
lost my speech. The medical people said it was from the stomach, which
might be, but while there is a doubt upon a point so alarming, you
will not wonder that the subject, or to use Hare's _lingo_, the
_shot_, should be a little anxious." He relates how he had followed
all the strict medical _regime_ prescribed to him with scrupulous
regularity, and then begun his work again with as much attention as he
could. "And having taken pains with my story, I find it is not
relished, nor indeed tolerated, by those who have no interest in
condemning it, but a strong interest in putting even a face" (? force)
"upon their consciences. Was not this, in the circumstances, a damper