mar, and orthography; where to find a
publisher, and how to obtain a well-disciplined mind.

These letters may sometimes be too long or come too often for convenience,
nor is the consoling postage-stamp always remembered. But they are of great
value as giving real glimpses of American social life, and of the present
tendencies of American women. They sometimes reveal such intellectual ardor
and imagination, such modesty, and such patience under difficulties, as to
do good to the reader, whatever they may do to the writer. They certainly
suggest a few thoughts, which may as well be expressed, once for all, in
print.

Behind almost all these letters there lies a laudable desire to achieve
success. "Would you have the goodness to tell us how success can be
obtained?" How can this be answered, my dear young lady, when you leave it
to the reader to guess what your definition of success may be? For
instance, here is Mr. Mansfield Tracy Walworth, who was murdered the other
day in New York. He was at once mentioned in the newspapers as a
"celebrated author."

Never in my life having heard of him, I looked in a "Manual of American
Literature," and there found that Mr. Walworth's novel of "Warwick" had a
sale of seventy-five thousand copies, and his "Delaplaine" of forty-five
thousand. Is it a success to have secured a sale like that for your books,
and then to die, and have your brother penmen ask, "Who was he?" Yet,
certainly, a sale of seventy-five thousand copies is not to be despised;
and I fear I know many youths and maidens who would willingly write novels
much poorer than "Warwick" for the sake of a circulation like that. I do
not think that Hawthorne, however, would have accepted these conditions;
and he certainly did not have this style of success.

Nor do I think he had any right to expect it. He had made his choice, and
had reason to be satisfied. The very first essential for literary success
is to decide what success means. If a young girl pines after the success of
Marion Harland and Mrs. Southworth, let her seek it. It is possible that
she may obtain it, or surpass it; and though she might do better, she might
do far worse. It is, at any rate, a laudable aim to be popular: popularity
may be a very creditable thing, unless you pay too high a price for it. It
is a pleasant thing, and has many contingent advantages,--balanced by this
great danger, that one is apt to mistake it for real success.

"Learning hath mad