KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



ial, they see the atsurdity of supposing 

 that all lions descended from two ancestral lions, all 

 whales from two ancestral whales, all Greeks fnim two 

 aucc>tral Cinkv, and so forth. It would in re.:li(y be 

 iv>t (-1,1 \Nl:ii iii.iif absurd for an historian acquaiuted 

 witli v.] .,: 1- iiii\'. kimwn about nations, to begin a liistory 

 of Eiiylaii'l liy 'li>.ribing the English nation as descended 

 from an ancestral English man and woman, Anglus and 

 Angelina, who settled in the middle of the island, in the 

 fourth generation from Jfoah and his wife, as it Would be 

 for a naturalist, acquainted with modern discoveries and 

 researches in biology, to picture the human race as 

 descended from two ancestral anthropoid apes. I cannot 

 but think that Darwin would have been a little amused had 

 he guessed that his use of the word " progenitor " would 

 have been so singularly misinterpreted. One might 

 almost as justly assert that Pope supposed a solitary male 

 .'ravage to run continually about the forests of the earth 

 because he wrote, " When wild in woods the noble savage 

 ran," and not "many noble savages, male and female, used 

 frequently to run, — or walk when tired of running." 



The Daily j\'eivs in an amusing article about publish- 

 ing-piracy in America, calls attention to Tennyson's 

 <juaint suggestion that those publishers who have made 

 money by selling his books in America, without making 

 him one penny the richer, should subscribe largely to the 

 Gordon Fund. The idea is excellent ; but I imagine the 

 ■Gordon Fund will not gain more than the Poet Laureate 

 has gained himself, fi-om the proceeds of the American 

 sales of his books. It woiild be such a surrender of 

 principle, to admit in that way that Tennyson ought long 

 since to have received money from the other side. Had 

 he privately applied for a good round sum for himself, he 

 would have had a much better chance of getting it from 

 American generosity. For in the present state of the 

 law every such payment, be it remembered, is a eift. 



In passing let me remark that I tried, — indeed I did, 

 — when penning the above paragraph to write Lord 

 Tennyson (the first " T " shows clear traces of the 

 attempt). But the Lordship and the poet fit as ill as 

 Burns's gaugership with his poetry. By way of a 

 Jest Thackeray could write " Mr. Secretary Addison " ; 

 but only so. Thank goodness all our best poets except 

 this one are left without any such attached tin-kettle — 

 or call it a "tinkling cymbal." Imagine having to 

 write King Shakespeare, or Duke Chaucer, or Prince 

 Milton ! 



To return to American publishers. I have had pro- 

 bably as varied experiences with the American publishing 

 trade as most men. There has certainly been good as 

 well as bad in their relations with me. Messrs. Appleton 

 were the first to take to a work of mine — that is, to take 

 it. They publi-shed an American edition of my " Other 

 Worlds than Ours," from which I received no direct profit. 

 But I gained largely — though I can scarcely thank thon for 

 that — by becoming better known than I had been in 

 America. I cannot but attribute to thLs a large part of 

 the success I obtained in America in 1873-4 — a time so 

 bad that Bellew and Wilkie Collins both failed there, 

 returning before the end of 1873 to this country. Messrs. 

 Appleton directly helped me also — and for this I may 

 legitimately thank them — to that success. Professor 

 Youmans in particular, who has done more than any 

 living man to improve the relations between literary 



men and publishers in the two countries, and who maj- 

 be regarded as representing Messrs. Appleton in a literary 

 way, maj- be said to have made my reception favourable. 



Americans, by the way, have an unpleasing way— some 

 of them — of calling the profits an English lecturer may 

 make in America, " money taken by iMiLrli.slinun out of 

 America." I think an English aiitl'mr « In -• Nv.^rk^ liave 

 been pirated over the water mav fairly t:ik'' a \ cry 

 different view of the matter. A tiav.lli- v. In^ ^-hnuld 

 meet in asocial sort of way a gentlemanly lir.iK- -isho 

 held a quantity of what had been and shcaild >till lie that 

 traveller's property, would hardly think lie \\ a^ taking 

 away other folks' money if he received in part payment a 

 sum collected by the comrades of the pleasant buccaneer. 



In other ways, Messrs. Appleton made me the amende 

 honorahle. They engaged my sei'vii-c'<, on veiy liandsome 

 terms, in writing the Astronomy ami part of the Meteor- 

 ology of the " American Cycloj ailia." This, though it 

 might seem but a business bargain, was in reality kindly 

 and generous. It exposed them to fierce abuse from 

 certain American astronomers who could not write, and 

 certain American writers who knew little astronomy. 

 These — both astronomers and \Mii r-- ilp nu'lit them- 

 felves wronged when an EhltIi- UL:aged on 



what they regarded as theii' ' of them 



revenged himself within a year I y i ,: ■ ii ^ a book of 

 mine in such blind wrath "that lie al'used in company 

 with it a book which was still in MS. in my desk. He 

 was severely but deservedly rebuked in the leading New 

 Tork papers. Another sent Messrs. Appleton a 

 pamphlet pointing out that my account of the pre- 

 cession of the equinoxes was not new though perhaps 

 not untrue, and jiresently distinguished himself by pub- 

 lishing a work on astronomy in \\l:i li m explanation 

 which was not true, though dee i i ll > inw, made 



its appearance. Whether I, er M ';l' ton, have 



been forgiven yet I do not know. J'^-.l :i l>'y 'it. 



The Daily Neivs mentions that English publishers 

 have not been free from blame, quoting one remarkable 

 case where one of them not only stole an American's 

 work but dedicated it to a person whom that American 

 by no means admired. In like .sort Messrs. Lippincott 

 "took over" Chambers' "Cyclopaedia," and modified it, 

 without explaining what they were doing, by abusing 

 English kings and queens and English rulers and states- 

 men. My own work has been curiously modified in the 

 same non-explanatory way over the water. Thus, when 

 I received the stereotyped proofs of my article on the 

 Moon for the " American Cyclopsedia," I found, too late 

 for any alteration, that a most remarkalile theory by a 



Mr. Boyle (I have always remembered 1le r,i li . ;lu^e 



I felt like boyling over myself) respect in- i i , i ■ nee 



of pools of water on the moon, had 1", :. i I i i,, It. 

 There was eventuallj' quite a disturbance I n r im -. |., nN, 

 which were cast up at me by the astronomers and writers 

 above mentioned. It was, indeed, when I explained 

 where they came from, that I learned through Messrs. 

 Appleton (who always thought my rejection of those 

 pools very unfair) how indignant American astronomers 

 and writers had been. I still stand by mj- opjiosition to 

 the lunar pools ; but I am bound to admit that as I had 

 not, in returning the stereotyped proof, insisted on their 

 being remorselessly cut out, Messrs. Appleton were jus- 

 tified in thinking I had accepted them. I had an idea, I 



