ultimately appeared under
the auspices of Mr. Bentley, who stated that it had more success than any
book he had ever published.

The author of "The Diary of a Late Physician" for a long time sought a
publisher, and unsuccessfully. At last he gave the manuscript to
_Blackwood's Magazine_, where it first appeared and was very successful.

The first volume of Hans Andersen's "Fairy Tales" was rejected by every
publisher in Copenhagen. Andersen had then neither name nor popularity,
and published this exquisite book at his own expense, a proceeding which
soon brought him into notoriety.

Miss Jane Austen's novels, models of writing at this day, at first met
with no success. One of them, "Northanger Abbey," was purchased by a
publisher in Bath for ten pounds. After paying this sum, he was afraid to
risk any further money in its publication, and it remained many years in
his possession before he ventured upon the speculation, which, to his
surprise, turned out very profitable.

The poet Shelley had always to pay for the publication of his poems.

The "Ode on the Death of Sir John Moore at Corunna" was written by Rev.
Charles Wolfe. It was rejected so scornfully by a leading periodical that
the author gave it to an obscure Irish paper.

Con Cregan's Legacy.

BY CHARLES LEVER.

Charles James Lever (1806--1872) remains the most popular
novelist that Ireland has ever produced. He was born in
Dublin and studied medicine both there and in Germany. After
practising his profession for several years, he began to
write his novels of Irish life, the first of which, "Harry
Lorrequer," appeared serially in the _Dublin University
Magazine_ in 1837. This story caught the fancy of the public
at once, by its unrestrained spirit of rollicking fun,
verging often upon farce. The flow of animal spirits which
Lever displayed was even more conspicuous in the most
popular of all his books, "Charles O'Malley," and in the
succeeding novels, "Jack Hinton," "Tom Burke of Ours," and
"The Confessions of Con Cregan," from the last of which the
accompanying selection is taken.

Wit and humor are blended in everything that Lever wrote,
and he had a keen eye for the grotesque. His later years
were largely spent upon the Continent, and he died at
Trieste, where he had been British consul for many years. He
and Samuel Lover afford the best examples of Celtic wit that