--an ideal? Come, old friend, say it isn't so
bad as that! It is? Then"--the prominent author paused and sank weakly
into the chair from which he had risen--"perhaps I have been dreaming
all these years; but in my dream it seems to me that everything outside
of myself which seemed to hinder me has really helped me. There has been
no obstacle in my way which if I were at the bottom of the hill, where I
might very rightfully be, I would have removed. I am glad that the climb
to success, as your friend calls it, has been hard and long, and I bless
God for my difficulties and backsets, all of them. Sometimes they seemed
cruel; they filled me with despair and shame; but there was not one that
did not make me stronger and fitter for my work, if I was fit for it.
You know very well that in this art of ours we need all the strength we
can get from our overthrows. There is no training that can ever make the
true artist's work easy to him, and if he is a true artist he will
suspect everything easily done as ill done. What comes hard and slow and
hopelessly, that is the thing which when we look at it we find is the
thing that was worth doing. I had my downs with my ups, and when I was
beginning the downs outnumbered the ups ten to one. For one manuscript
accepted, and after the days of many years printed, I had a dozen
rejected and rejected without delay. But every such rejection helped me.
In some cases I had to swallow the bitter dose and own that the editor
was right; but the bitter was wholesome. In other cases I knew that he
was wrong, and then I set my teeth, and took my courage in both hands,
and tried and tried with that rejected manuscript till the divinely
appointed editor owned that I was right. But these are the commonplaces
of literary biography. I don't brag of them; and I have always tried to
keep my head in such shape that even defeat has not swelled it beyond
the No. 7 I began with. Why should I be so wicked as to help another and
a younger man over the bad places? If I could only gain his confidence I
should like to tell him that these are the places that will strengthen
his heart for the climb. But if he has a weak heart, he had better try
some other road. There! I have given you all the 'hints and suggestions
from my experience' that I can think of, and now let me go."

Once more he rose, and once more we stayed him. "Yes," we said, "no
doubt you think you have spoken honestly and faithfully, but you have
addres