140 GEOEGE JOHN ROMANES issi- 



feelings, and the second, I suppose, by submitting 

 the verses to some good authority for an opinion — 

 say one to whom I have not sent them. Only, if the 

 matter were to go as far as this, I should like you to 

 explain to the critic that as it stands the poem is only 

 in the rough. If it were to be revised for publication 

 I should spend a good deal of trouble over the process 

 of polishing, and some of the lines expressive of pas- 

 sionate grief would be altogether changed. 



In sending you the MS. I rely upon you not to 

 let the authorship be known to anyone without first 

 asking me, because, although I have published poetry 

 already, 1 it has been anonymous, and I do not want 

 it to be known that I have this propensity. And on 

 this account, if these verses were to appear in the 

 biography, it would require to be without my name, 

 or headed in some such way as ' Memorial verses by 

 a friend.' In this case I should modify any of the 

 lines which might lead to the author being spotted. 



Should you decide against admitting them, I do 

 not think that I should publish them anywhere else, 

 because where such a personality is concerned, inde- 

 pendent publication (without the occasion furnished 

 by the appearance of a biography) might seem pre- 

 sumptuous even on the part of an anonymous writer. 



Yesterday I received a letter from the Frenchman 

 who translated my book on ' Mental Evolution,' ask- 

 ing me to let him know whether he might apply for 

 the translation of the biography. His name is De 

 Yarigny, and he does some original work in verte- 



1 A few stray poems in magazines. 



