626 My New Lodgings. [J u NB 



therefore, until after breakfast on the second day (I never could compose 

 before breakfast), that, ordering myself to be denied lo all the world (a 

 pulpit would hold the entire circle of my acquaintance in London !), I 

 sat me down, in all the dignity of authorship, to my literary labours. The 

 influence of an able writer over his species pressed itself irresistibly on 

 my mind. I mused upon the famous aphorism, " knowledge is power ;" 

 and was quoting the lines of Byron- 



" But words are things ; and a small drop of ink, 



Falling like dew upon a thought, produces 



That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think." 



when a tap at the door caught my ear. I instinctively said, " Come in !" 

 and my landlord entered, smirking and scraping, with an immense 

 bundle of papers under his left arm. 



All my visions of glory vanished into thin air ! Against flutes and 

 families I had taken every precaution ; but the peril of a politico-lite- 

 rary landlord had never once entered my head ! 



His face, in which self-complacency made a comical effort to look like 

 diffidence, was sufficient to inform me that there subsisted between him 

 and the said papers some very near and dear relationship. But he left 

 no doubt upon the subject. " An humble attempt, Sir \" said he, laying 

 on the table, as he spoke, a manuscript of at least a hundred pages of 

 closely- written letter-paper ; " an humble attempt, Sir, to which I 

 humbly beg to solicit your favourable attention. We literary men, Sir 

 if I may presume to make so bold must assist each other. It is 

 entitled, you will observe, < A Political Panorama of the British 

 Empire* most important at the present crisis. Perhaps, if I may make so 

 bold, you will do me honour to give it one or two careful perusals any 

 time in the course of the day ; your candid opinion will oblige me. I 

 flatter myself it will meet your approbation, as it has, I assure you, met 

 that of Mr. , a member of the Imperial Parliament, my most parti- 

 cular friend. Perhaps you know Mr. ?" 



Peruse a hundred pages of solid pamphlet ! It was well for my land- 

 lord my organs of combativeness, and his of self-esteem, were not equally 

 developed. But great provocations have frequently a tranquillizing 

 effect : ladies who storm when a single cup falls, are serene when a whole 

 service is dashed to pieces. So it was with me. I replied composedly 

 that I was at present occupied with indispensable business ; but, if he 

 would leave his MS., I would look over it when I was at leisure. 

 It would not do ; I was obliged to listen to the " Table of Contents." That 

 was not enough there were two chapters to which he wished to call 

 my attention he would just run over them for me, if I had no objec- 

 tion. I had every objection in the world ; but I was happy to com- 

 pound for a preface of a dozen pages. The text was bad enough, but 

 the oral comment was still worse ; and even this was not so trying to 

 my patience as the apologies that accompanied it. He begged my par- 

 don for digressing ; hoped he had not interrupted the thread of the 

 argument ; and kindly offered to go back again, if it were necessary ! I 

 now rose from my chair. He appeared to take the hint, and moved a 

 step or two towards the door. I occupied the ground thus abandoned, 

 and kept it. It was impossible, however, to prevent him from laying 

 hold of one of my coat-buttons. Men of business ought either to wear 

 no buttons, or take care to have their edges sharp and serrated, as a 



