But who can read these very paragraphs of protest
without feeling an actual personal acquaintance with
the writer!

**Hold a writer of pure fiction answerable
for the opinions of every one of his drama-
iis personae, and he will be limited in the
choice of them to folk who are on all fours
with every one else — conformists of a venom-
ous type — good to be read about in bed by
persons who suffer from insomnia, but good
for nothing else

' * I may add that if the readers of this novel
want anything altered in it, it shall be done
in the second edition, provided that they are
unanimous and that it will leave the text con-
secutive."

One may well be grateful that De Morgan did deal
with others than conformists of a venomous type ; but
even they, under the spell of his wise and kindly
humor, would probably have become good for much
more than a cure for insomnia.
An incident thoroughly characteristic of the man
underlies the letter reproduced as the frontispiece of
this volume. An American admirer of Joseph Vance
and his successors expressed some measure of his ad-
miration in verses which outran by an additional
quatrain the sonnet length, even as De Morgan's sto-



AN INCIDENT 11

ries were apt to outrun the novel length decreed by
present custom.
0, could I dip my pen in charity
To write contentment on the book of years,
Or could I win the tribute of those tears

The loyal heart pays out so readily —

Or might it be that men should think of me
For one brief moment with a loving smile
Perchance a lurking shadow to beguile

Or help to set some bond of sorrow free.
