at
least the balance in our favor when the edition is sold, which
the booksellers assure me will assuredly be done within a year
from the publication, must be seven hundred and sixty dollars,
and what more Heaven and the subscribers may grant. I shall
follow this letter and bill by a duplicate of the bill in the
next packet.

The _Miscellanies_ is published in two volumes, a copy of which
goes to you immediately. Munroe tells me that two hundred and
fifty copies of it are already sold. Writing in a bookshop, my
dear friend, I have no power to say aught than that I am heartily
and always,

Yours,
R. Waldo Emerson

XXVI. Emerson to Carlyle

Concord, 6 August, 1838

My Dear Friend,--The swift ships are slow when they carry our
letters. Your letter dated the 15th of June arrived here last
Friday, the 3d of August. That day I was in Boston, and I have
only now got the information necessary to answer it. You have
probably already learned from my letter sent by the "Royal
William" (enclosing a bill of exchange for L50), that our first
two volumes of the _Miscellanies_ are published. I have sent you
a copy. The edition consists of one thousand copies. Of these
five hundred are bound, five hundred remain in sheets. The
title-pages, of course, are all printed alike; but the
publishers assure me that new title-pages can be struck off at a
trifling expense, with the imprint of Saunders and Ottley. The
cost of a copy in sheets or "folded" (if that means somewhat
more?) is eighty-nine cents; and bound is $1.15. The retail
price is $2.50 a copy; and the author's profit, $1; and the
bookseller's, 35 cents per copy; according to my understanding
of the written contract.

Here I believe you have all the material facts. I think there is
no doubt that the book will sell very well here. But if, for the
reasons you suggest, you wish any part of it, you can have it as
soon as ships can bring your will.

When you see your copy, you will perceive that we have printed
half the matter. I should presently begin to print the
remainder, inclusive of the Article on Lockhart's Scott, in two
more volumes; but now I think I shall wait until I hear from
you. Of those books we will print a larger edition, say twelve
hundred and fifty or fifteen hundred, if you want a part of it in
London. For I feel confident now that our public here is one
thousand strong. Write me therefore _by the steam packet_
your wi