n, they are
not of the slightest consequence, and seldom survive the remedy of a
cup of coffee. I only wish it were the same with everybody--I mean,
with every _head_! Also there is nothing the matter otherwise--and I
am going to prove my right to a 'clean bill of health' by going into
the park in ten minutes. Twice round the inner enclosure is what I can
compass now--which is equal to once round the world--is it not?

I had just time to be afraid that the parcel had not reached you. The
reason why I sent you the poems was that I had a few copies to give to
my personal friends, and so, wished you to have one; and it was quite
to please myself and not to please _you_ that I made you have it; and
if you put it into the 'plum-tree' to hide the errata, I shall be
pleased still, if not rather more. Only let me remember to tell you
this time in relation to those books and the question asked of
yourself by your noble Romans, that just as I was enclosing my
sixty-pounds debt to Mr. Moxon, I did actually and miraculously
receive a remittance of fourteen pounds from the selfsame bookseller
of New York who agreed last year to print my poems at his own risk and
give me 'ten per cent on the profit.' Not that I ever asked for such a
thing! They were the terms offered. And I always considered the 'per
centage' as quite visionary ... put in for the sake of effect, to make
the agreement look better! But no--you see! One's poetry has a real
'commercial value,' if you do but take it far away enough from the
'civilization of Europe.' When you get near the backwoods and the red
Indians, it turns out to be nearly as good for something as
'cabbages,' after all! Do you remember what you said to me of cabbages
_versus_ poems, in one of the first letters you ever wrote to me?--of
selling cabbages and buying _Punches_?

People complain of Dr. Chambers and call him rough and
unfeeling--neither of which _I_ ever found him for a moment--and I
like him for his truthfulness, which is the nature of the man, though
it is essential to medical morality never to let a patient think
himself mortal while it is possible to prevent it, and even Dr.
Chambers may incline to this on occasion. Still he need not have said
all the good he said to me on Saturday--he _used_ not to say any of
it; and he must have thought some of it: and, any way, the Pisa-case
is strengthened all round by his opinion and injunction, so that all
my horror and terror at the thoughts of