and by. I have been the stupidest and laziest of men. I could
not write even to you, till some palpable call told me I must.

Yesternight, however, there arrives a despatch from Fraser,
apprising me that the American _Miscellanies,_ second cargo, are
announced from Portsmouth, and "will probably be in the River
tomorrow"; where accordingly they in all likelihood now are, a
fair landing and good welcome to them! Fraser "knows not whether
they are bound or not"; but will soon know. The first cargo, of
which I have a specimen here, contented him extremely; only
there was one fatality, the cloth of the binding was multiplex,
party-colored, some sets done in green, others in red, blue,
perhaps skyblue! Now if the second cargo were not multiplex,
party-colored, nay multiplex, _in exact concordance with the
first,_ as seemed almost impossible--?--Alas, in that case, one
could not well predict the issue!--Seriously, it is a most
handsome Book you have made; and I have nothing to return but
thanks and again thanks. By the bye, if you do print a small
second edition of the First Portion, I might have had a small set
of errata ready: but _where are they?_ The Book only came into
my hand here a few days ago; and I have been whipt from post
to pillar without will of my own, without energy to form a
will! The only glaring error I recollect at this moment is one
somewhere in the second article on _Jean Paul:_ "Osion" (I
think, or some such thing) instead of "Orson": it is not an
original American error, but copied from the English; if the
Printer get his eye upon it, let him rectify; if not, not, I
_deserve_ to have it stand against me there. Fraser's joy,
should the Books prove either unbound or multiplex in the right
way, will be great and unalloyed; he calculates on selling all
the copies very soon. He has begun reprinting Goethe's _Wilhelm
Meister_ too, the _Apprenticeship_ and _Travels_ under one; and
hopes to remunerate himself for that by and by: whether there
will then remain any small peculium for me is but uncertain;
meanwhile I correct the press, nothing doubting. One of these I
call my best Translation, the other my worst; I have read that
latter, the _Apprenticeship,_ again in these weeks; not without
surprise, disappointment, nay, aversion here and there, yet on
the whole with ever new esteem. I find I can pardon _all_ things
in a man except purblindness, falseness of vision,--for, indeed,