University of Virginia Library

I

I have received your very kind note with its very kind enclosure. I have never regarded myself as having any quarrel with the Contemporary Review, but I had become acquainted with M'. Knowles and followed his fortunes;[1] and I write so very little that when I have given him an article or two in a year, and an article to Macmillan, who is my publisher,[2] I have nothing left to give.

I am not disposed to write more at present about Carlyle than I have said in my discourse on Emerson.[3] I shall probably return to America this time year,[4] and between now and then I am not likely to publish more than two articles. One of them has been long promised to Mr. Knowles; the other I should probably

have also given to him, but you shall have it if you like. It will be ready for February, will have for title "A Christmas Meditation,"[5] and will follow in general the same line of thought and feeling with which Literature and Dogma and God and the Bible have made the public more or less familiar. Perhaps on this account it may not be well suited to the Contemporary Review; you will tell me if this is so, and I shall perfectly understand it. Your terms are liberal, but I am quite content with £50 for an article of from 15 to 20 pages, which is what Mr. Knowles and the editor of Macmillan pay me.