Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/46

 38 INTRODUCrrON

seen it, partly because few copies are in circulation except- ing such as I have myself distributed, and partly because it has been issued in a manner nearly private, being with- out the name of the author, without advertisement, and so entirely out of the control of any publisher that it is not probable that any of the customary methods of creating a sale, either by pufhng or other false pretences, have been or will be employed in relation to it. I ought to say, how- ever, lest I should seem to think the N. A. Review com- mitted to an article on my book (a circumstance which might prove embarrassing), that my ambition is not of a very hungry sort, and that, if either Mr. Abbot's health or engagements should prevent him from preparing such an article as he desires, or if the claims of others (which must be many upon your pages) should make the proposed courtesy inconvenient to you, far from thinking myself slighted, I shall in no degree deem it a just cause of morti- fication, believing that books, like other things, do in the long run reach those whom they concern. I shall in that case feel satisfied, provided anything contained in the volume should increase for you the enjoyment of a leisure

hour. r-^ ^ ,

[Yours truly,

J. W. Randall.]

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