, and walked
on, making believe I was in a gymnasium, keeping a sharp watch fore and
aft, and considering the distant rumbling of wheels a signal for
lowering my colors. In my country people do not carry their burdens on
their heads, nor would they be likely to account for me on the
principles of Natural Philosophy. I might have been apprehended as a
lunatic, but for my timely caution. Thus the "New Suns" came home and
were speedily divested of their dun wrappings. I lingered over them,
admiring their clear type, their fragrance, their crispness. I opened
them wide, because they would open so frankly. I delighted myself with
their fair, fine smoothness. And then I began to read. I am ashamed to
say I never read a more interesting book!

How very true it is that suffering is about equally distributed, after
all! If you don't have your troubles spread out, you have them in a
lump. The furies may seem to be held in abeyance, but they will only lay
on their lashes all the harder when they do come. My unnatural calmness
was succeeded by a storm of consternation. I pass over the few days that
followed. If you ever put yourself into a pillory in the night just to
see how it seemed, and then found yourself fastened there in good
earnest, and day dawning, and all the marketmen and shopkeepers up and
stirring, and everybody coming by in a few minutes, you will not need to
ask how I felt. When you write a book, you are quite alone and your pen
is entirely private; but when it comes to you so unquestionably printed,
and inexorable, and out-of-doors--Ah, me! It did not seem like a book at
all,--not at all the abstraction and impersonality that were intended,
but my proper self bevelled and (with another syllable inserted) walking
out into the world with malice aforethought.

But though a writer is before critics, did it never occur to you that
the critics are just as much before the writers? A critic's talk about a
book is just as truly a revelation of the critic as the writer's talk in
the book is a revelation of the writer. One man gives you an opinion
that implies attention. He does not go into the depths of the matter,
but he tells you honestly what he likes and what he does not like. This
is good. This is precisely what you wish to know, and will indirectly
help you. Another, from the steps of a throne, in a few sentences, it
may be, or a few columns, classifies you, interprets you not only to the
world, but to yourself; and f