00 LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER 



LETTER XXIX. 



Selborne, July 16, 1777. 



Dear Brother, 

 Somehow or other I had persuaded myself that you were to 

 write first ; and having little to say as we had seen each other 

 so lately, I thought I would stay 'till you gave the challenge, 

 before I attacked you with an epistle. 



As yet I have not seen your work, but shall peruse it 

 with pleasure as soon as brother Thomas brings it. But he is 

 going to bathe on the coast of Dorset for a few weeks. As I 

 hoped and expected to see you derive some credit and emolu- 

 ment from your labours, I was sorry to hear that the whole 

 pursuit is thrown aside for the present in some degree of dis- 

 gust and chagrin. One thing I could never understand ; and 

 that is, you say in a former letter " that having so near a 

 relation a bookseller, should you not agree with him about 

 terms, no other publisher would meddle with your work, 

 because your relation is one of the first editors in the natural 

 history way." Now the force of this argument I could never 

 see ; for Cadell or any other man would be influenced alone 

 by his own judgment, and, if he saw merit in the work and 

 an interesting subject, would little regard, I should think, 

 another person's sentiments. Unless you have experienced 

 the inconvenience that you thought you foresaw, your sus- 

 picions were probably wrong. 



The roof of my great parlor is finished ; and my walls in a 

 few days will be up to their proper pitch ; so that we shall 

 soon proceed to rearing. You do well in removing the earth 

 that lies above your floors : I have taken away much for the 

 same reason. I have not seen the Clergy Act, but am assured 

 that it has nothing to do with residence; there is nothing com- 

 pulsive in it, but it enables the clergy to borrow money on their 

 livings, which they may lay out on the repairs of their houses, 

 &c, and so exempt their representatives at their deaths from 



