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1. Experimenting. 2. G.B. 3. Schiller 4. Composing. 5.
6. Potatoes
Monday Nov. 27. 1780
I can now tell you for certain that Schiller
will translate Introd. at any rate; which I hope notwithstanding
the pother you keep making about
French will be no bad news to you. I believe
I told you in my last (which was sent I
think on Friday 17th inst. ) (or the Thursday before) that he had written
to two Booksellers, & that he thought it would
be very extraordinary if neither of them accepted
it. He was to have been with me on Thursday
16th or Sat:y 18 to deliver me a specimen
which he wished me to shew to Raig:r
or any friends of mine who understood the language:
on the Saturday he sent an excuse: but
the next Monday (this day sennight) he
came. He said he had done three sheets; but
had copied out only what he brought me —
was a more than . I told you before
I believe that I had given him a general notice
of my plans for printing it, looking upon
him as a man to be relied upon, and considering
that he was trusting so much to me.
I told him about printing, though I did not
talk to him about the consequences; however
he certainly thought then as we each of
us cited examples of persons who had been
or had been going, on that plan. I thought
these things would be of great use as &
I did not see how his having them in his hand
could do any harm: besides he promised secrecy,
which indeed there does not seem to be
any means of his violating were he so disposed:
he is the obscurest of all obscure devils,
& in particular he has no connections with
any such quarter as you cautioned me against.
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If I had not been this explicit to him, what
inducement could I have given him to make
haste, and to give it the preference to everything
else? or what motive would he have
had to make a point of executing it as well
as possible? The result is that whether from
the more liking he took to the thing, or from
the prospect held out to him as above, he
has taken it up just in the manner I cou'd
wish. I then told him of my project of indemnifying
a bookseller as a pis-aller; upon
which you see he would have run no risk
but would have had his pay at any rate
what do you letting him no at the same
time that it would not suit me to be anything
in advance: What do you think was
his answer? Why, that if he were a man
of fortune, he would not think of staking the
matter upon the event of a bookseller's acceptance
of the proposal, but would print it
at his own risk: as it was, it was too much
for him to venture: however he would go
halves with me in the risk with all his
heart: that if neither proposal was accepted
he would get it printed at Leipzic
(750 copies) that he would go halves with
me in the risk that I need not be in
advance a penny, and that all that I
should have to do should be to indemnify
him at the end of a certain time against to the
extent of my half. It would be printed he said before
the Easter fair: and it would be hard if we
did not sell 350 copies out of our 750, at
that fair, in which case there would be
little or nothing for us to pay. This I think
is a pretty good proof of two things; his generosity,
and his affection for the work. He still talks
of
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Identifier: | JB/539/108/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 539.
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1780-12-01 |
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539 |
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108 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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