sent to newspaper
reviewers, and so effectually had he concealed the personality of his
work that no critic seems to have suspected the book's authorship. It
was not over-favorably received. It was generally characterized as a
clever, and even brilliant, expose of philosophies which were no
longer startlingly new. The supremacy of self-interest and "man the
irresponsible machine" are the main features of 'What Is Man' and
both of these and all the rest are comprehended in his wider and more
absolute doctrine of that inevitable life-sequence which began with the
first created spark. There can be no training of the ideals, "upward and
still upward," no selfishness and unselfishness, no atom of voluntary
effort within the boundaries of that conclusion. Once admitting the
postulate, that existence is merely a sequence of cause and effect
beginning with the primal atom, and we have a theory that must stand or
fall as a whole. We cannot say that man is a creature of circumstance
and then leave him free to select his circumstance, even in the minutest
fractional degree. It was selected for him with his disposition; in that
first instant of created life. Clemens himself repeatedly emphasized
this doctrine, and once, when it was suggested to him that it seemed to
"surround every thing, like the sky," he answered:

"Yes, like the sky; you can't break through anywhere."

Colonel Harvey came to Dublin that summer and persuaded Clemens to let
him print some selections from the dictations in the new volume of
the North American Review, which he proposed to issue fortnightly. The
matter was discussed a good deal, and it was believed that one hundred
thousand words could be selected which would be usable forthwith, as
well as in that long-deferred period for which it was planned. Colonel
Harvey agreed to take a copy of the dictated matter and make the
selections himself, and this plan was carried out. It may be said
that most of the chapters were delightful enough; though, had it been
possible to edit them with the more positive documents as a guide,
certain complications might have been avoided. It does not matter now,
and it was not a matter of very wide import then.

The payment of these chapters netted Clemens thirty thousand dollars--a
comfortable sum, which he promptly proposed to spend in building on
the property at Redding. He engaged John Mead Howells to prepare some
preliminary plans.

Clara Clemens, at Norfolk, was writ