ng with
arrangements with for another month, when he received a letter from his
assistant, of which the tone may be inferred from this answer:

"I am sorry you have thought it necessary to send me such a letter. Your
troubles have given a morbid tone to your feelings which it is your duty
to discourage. I myself have been as severely handled by the world as you
can possibly have been, but my sufferings have not tinged my mind with
melancholy, nor jaundiced my views of society. You must rouse your
energies, and if care assail you, conquer it. I will gladly overlook the
past. I hope you will as easily fulfill your pledges for the future. We
shall agree very well, thought I cannot permit the magazine to be made a
vehicle for that sort of severity which you think is so 'successful with
the mob.' I am truly much less anxious about making a monthly 'sensation'
than I am upon the point of fairness. You must, my dear sir, get rid of
your avowed ill-feelings toward your brother authors. You see I speak
plainly; I cannot do otherwise upon such a subject. You say the people
love havoc. I think they love justice. I think you yourself would not
have written the article on Dawes, in a more healthy state of mind. I am
not trammeled by any vulgar consideration of expediency; I would rather
lose money than by such undue severity wound the feelings of a
kind-hearted and honorable man. And I am satisfied that Dawes has
something the true fire in him. I regretted your word-catching spirit.
But I wander from my design. I accept your proposition to recommence your
interrupted avocations upon the _Maga_. Let us meet as if we had not
exchanged letters. Use more exercise, write when feelings prompt, and be
assured of my friendship. You will soon regain a healthy activity of
mind, and laugh at your past vagaries."

This letter was kind and judicious. It gives us a glimpse of Poe's theory
of criticism, and displays the temper and principles of the literary
comedian in an honorable light. Two or three months afterward Burton went
out of town to fulfill a professional engagement, leaving material and
directions for completing the next number of the magazine in four days.
He was absent nearly a fortnight, and on returning he found that his
printers in the meanwhile had not received a line of copy; but that Poe
had prepared the prospectus of a new monthly, and obtained transcripts of
his subscription and account books, to be used in a scheme for
sup