An Etcher's Voyage of Discovery. 313 



CHAPTER IX. 



A CERTAIN critic in the ' Athenaeum ' has lately 

 accused the author of this little narrative * of 

 'intense egotism;' and not very long since somebody 

 complained that he talked too much about his dog. 

 Now, in the present chapter, if the story of the voyage 

 is to be faithfully narrated, there ought to be a thrilling 

 account of a perilous and extraordinary shipwreck ; but 

 if the writer is neither to talk about himself, nor his dog, 

 nor any thing that is his, how is he to tell the tale ? 

 The truth is, that if you listen to critics you will never 

 publish any thing. One critic dislikes the egotistic bits, 

 another hates all landscape descriptions, another cannot 

 endure any allusion to past history, another feels bored 

 by any thing resembling philosophical reflection, a fifth 

 scorns the repeater of an anecdote, and so on ; till, if 

 you try to please them all, simple abstinence from writ- 

 ing is the only thing possible for you. On the other 

 hand, if you eliminate one of these elements in order to 

 please one critic, the others immediately complain that 

 it is wanting. It is a fact, that a very eminent publisher 

 complained to me a little while since that there was not 

 enough about myself in a MS. I sent him, and too much 

 about Julius Caesar and the Gaulish System of fortifica- 



* These chapters were first published in the Portfolio; an Artistic 

 Periodical. 



