Nickerson has taken his measures, will
reduce the price of his remaining copies; indeed, he informs me
the best part of his edition was already sold, and he has even
some color of money due from England to Emerson through me! With
pride enough will I transmit this mournful, noble peculium: and
after that, as I perceive, such chivalrous international doings
must cease between us. _Past and Present,_ some one told me,
was, in spite of all your precautions, straightway sent forth in
modest gray, and your benevolent speculation ruined. Here too,
you see, it is the same. Such chivalries, therefore, are now
impossible; for myself I say, "Well, let them cease; thank God
they once were, the Memory of that can never cease with us!"
In this last Number of the _Dial_ which by the bye your
Bookseller never forwarded to me, I found one little Essay, a
criticism on myself,* which, if it should do me mischief, may the
gods forgive you for! It is considerably the most dangerous
thing I have read for some years. A decided likeness of myself
recognizable in it, as in the celestial mirror of a friend's
heart; but so enlarged, exaggerated, all _transfigured,_--the
most delicious, the most dangerous thing! Well, I suppose I must
try to assimilate it also, to turn it also to good, if I be able.
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