are merely literary, and all
my habits of thinking, reading, etc., have been in a different
direction from that required by the active politician. It is a mistake
also to suppose I would fill an office there, and devote myself at the
same time to literature. I require much leisure, and a mind entirely
abstracted from other cares and occupations, if I would write much or
write well.... If I ever get any solid credit with the public, it must
be in the quiet and assiduous operations of my pen, under the mere
guidance of fancy or feeling.... I feel myself completely committed in
literary reputation by what I have already written; and I feel by no
means satisfied to rest my reputation on my preceding writings. I have
suffered several precious years of youth and lively imagination to
pass by unimproved, and it behooves me to make the most of what is
left. If I indeed have the means within me of establishing a
legitimate literary reputation, this is the very period of life most
auspicious for it, and I am resolved to devote a few years exclusively
to the attempt.... In fact, I consider myself at present as making a
literary experiment, in the course of which I only care to be kept in
bread and cheese. Should it not succeed--should my writings not
acquire critical applause, I am content to throw up the pen and take
to any commonplace employment. But if they should succeed, it would
repay me for a world of care and privation to be placed among the
established authors of my country, and to win the affections of my
countrymen.... Do not, I beseech you, impute my lingering in Europe to
any indifference to my own country or my friends.... I am determined
not to return home until I have sent some writings before me that
shall, if they have merit, make me return to the smiles, rather than
skulk back to the pity, of my friends."

To Brevoort he wrote at the same time: "I have attempted no lofty
theme, nor sought to look wise and learned, which appears to be very
much the fashion among our American writers, at present. I have
preferred addressing myself to the feeling and fancy of the reader,
more than to his judgment. My writings, therefore, may appear light
and trifling in our country of philosophers and politicians; but if
they possess merit in the class of literature to which they belong, it
is all to which I aspire in the work. I seek only to blow a flute
accompaniment in the national concert, and leave others to play the
fiddle a