Yet, though one course of action is not to be wondered at, the
opposite may fall upon a grieved and disappointed mind with all the
graciousness of dew; and I can well sympathize with the published
account which "Currer Bell" gives, of the feelings experienced on
reading Messrs. Smith and Elder's letter containing the rejection of
"The Professor."
"As a forlorn hope, we tried one publishing house more. Ere long, in a
much shorter space than that on which experience had taught him to
calculate, there came a letter, which he opened in the dreary
anticipation of finding two hard, hopeless lines, intimating that
'Messrs. Smith and Elder were not disposed to publish the MS.,' and,
instead, he took out the envelope a letter of two pages. He read it,
trembling. It declined, indeed, to publish that tale, for business
reasons, but it discussed its merits and demerits so courteously, so
considerately, in a spirit so rational, with a discrimination so
enlightened, that this very refusal cheered the author better than a
vulgarly expressed acceptance would have done. It was added, that a
work in three volumes would meet with careful attention."
Mr. Smith has told me a little circumstance connected with the
reception of this manuscript which seems to me indicative of no
ordinary character.
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