GLEAMS OF LIGHT. 105 



S wind on would rally round the Goddard flag, 

 and eagerly buy the book. I have not read 

 the work ; but it had the honour of getting a 

 notice from the Athenceum, which the author 

 heroically cut out and preserved. The plain 

 truth was spoken in that notice, and the most 

 was made of a very unfortunate mistake of a 

 place, a date, and a poet, concerning which 

 the curious may consult the Athenaeum for the 

 year 1873. 



The results of publishing at his own expense 

 were, we suppose, so satisfactory that Jefferies 

 in 1874 brought out his first novel "The 

 Scarlet Shawl" on that delightful method. 

 It is always in vain that one assures a young 

 writer that works which publishers with one 

 consent refuse must be commercially worthless ; 

 it is always in vain that one preaches, exhorts, 

 and implores the inexperienced not to throw 

 away their money in the vain hope of getting 

 it back with profit of gold and glory. They 

 will do it. There are always publishing 

 houses of a kind which are ready to print 

 young writers' crude and foolish works at 

 their own risk, and to talk vaguely before- 



