and the Felling of the Western Forest, proudly remembered; and
for the rest, by way of parish constable, let each cheerfully
take such George Washington or George Guelph as it can get, and
bless Heaven! I am weary of hearing it said, "We love the
Americans," "We wish well," &c., &c. What in God's name should
we do else?

You thank me for _Teufelsdrockh;_ how much more ought I to thank
you for your hearty, genuine, though extravagant acknowledgment
of it! Blessed is the voice that amid dispiritment, stupidity,
and contradiction proclaims to us, _Euge!_ Nothing ever was more
ungenial than the soil this poor Teufelsdrockhish seed-corn has
been thrown on here; none cries, Good speed to it; the sorriest
nettle or hemlock seed, one would think, had been more welcome.
For indeed our British periodical critics, and especially
the public of _Fraser's_ Magazine (which I believe I have now
done with), exceed all speech; require not even contempt,
only oblivion. Poor Teufelsdrockh!--Creature of mischance,
miscalculation, and thousand-fold obstruction! Here nevertheless
he is, as you see; has struggled across the Stygian marshes, and
now, as a stitched pamphlet "for Friends," cannot be _burnt_ or
lost before his time. I send you one copy for your own behoof;
three others you yourself can perhaps find fit readers for: as
you spoke in the plural number, I thought there might be three;
more would rather surprise me. From the British side of the
water I have met simply one intelligent response,--clear, true,
though almost enthusiastic as your own. My British Friend too is
utterly a stranger, whose very name I know not, who did not
print, but only write, and to an unknown third party.* Shall I
say then, "In the mouth of two witnesses"? In any case, God be
thanked, I am done with it; can wash my hands of it, and send it
forth; sure that the Devil will get his full share of it,
and not a whit more, clutch as he may. But as for you, my
Transoceanic brothers, read this earnestly, for it _was_
earnestly meant and written, and contains no _voluntary_
falsehood of mine. For the rest, if you dislike it, say that I
wrote it four years ago, and could not now so write it, and on
the whole (as Fritz the Only said) "will do better another time."
With regard to style and so forth, what you call your "saucy"
objections are not only most intelligible to me, but welcome and
instructive. You say well that I take up that attitude