at present; though talking of Lisbon with his
Buccleuchs. My Wife seems better than of late winters. I
actually had a Horse, nay actually have it, though it has gone to
the country till the mud abate again! It did me perceptible
good; I mean to try it farther. I am no longer so desperately
poor as I have been for twelve years back; sentence of
starvation or beggary seems revoked at last, a blessedness
really very considerable. Thanks, thanks! We send a thousand
regards to the two little ones, to the two mothers. _Valete
nostrum memores._

--T. Carlyle

XLVIII. Emerson to Carlyle

Concord, 12 December, 1839

My Dear Friend,--Not until the 29th of November did the five
hundred copies of the _French Revolution_ arrive in Boston.
Fraser unhappily sent them to New York, whence they came not
without long delays. They came in perfectly good order, not in
the pretty red you told us of, but in a sober green;--not so
handsome and salable a back, our booksellers said, as their own;
but in every other respect a good book. The duties at the New
York Custom House on these and a quantity of other books sent by
Fraser amounted to $400.36, whereof, I understand, the _French
Revolution_ pays for its share $243. No bill has been brought us
for freight, so we conclude that you have paid it. I confided
the book very much to the conscience and discretion of Little and
Brown, and after some ciphering they settle to sell it at $3.75
per copy, wherefrom you are to get the cost of the book, and
(say) $1.10 per copy profit, and no more. The booksellers
eat the rest. The book is rather too dear for our market of
cheap manufactures, and therefore we are obliged to give the
booksellers a good percentage to get it off at all: for we stand
in daily danger of a cheap edition from some rival neighbor. I
hope to give you good news of its sale soon, although I have been
assured today that no book sells, the times are so bad. Brown
had disposed of fifty or sixty copies to the trade, and twelve at
retail. He doubted not to sell them all in six months....

Several persons have asked me to get some copies of the _German
Romance_ sent over here for sale. Last week a gentleman desired me
to say he wanted four copies, and today I have been charged to
procure another. I think, if you will send me by Little and Brown,
through Longman, six copies, we can find an immediate market.

It gives me great joy to