Part 4 (1/2)

Nevertheless I thoughtbeen then two years without having an _The Warden_, at Tenbury in Worcestershi+re It was then more than twelve e in Salisbury, and had made out to my own satisfaction the spot on which Hiram's hospital should stand Certainly no work that I ever did took up so hts On this occasion I did no more than write the first chapter, even if so much I had determined that my official work should be ; but then, just at this tie of the northern counties in Ireland,--of Ulster, and the counties Meath and Louth Hitherto in official language I had been a surveyor's clerk,--noas to be a surveyor

The difference consisted mainly in an increase of income from about 450 to about 800;--for at that time the sum netted still depended on the nulish work to which I had becoland were being done by other men, and I had nearly finished the area which had been entrusted to me I should have liked to ride over the whole country, and to have sent a rural post letter-carrier to every parish, every village, every haland

We were at this tiards any residence

While ere living at Clonh to have been s, and from there had moved to Mallow, a town in the county Cork, where we had taken a house Malloas in the centre of a hunting country, and had been very pleasant to iven up when it was known that I should be detained in England; and then we had wandered about in the western counties,this time we had lived at Exeter, at Bristol, at Caerain hteen months at Belfast After that we took a house at Donnybrook, the well-known suburb of Dublin

The work of taking up a new district, which requires not only that the ements, but also the characters and the peculiarities of the post on with my book at once It was not till the end of 1852 that I recommenced it, and it was in the autumn of 1853 that I finished the work It was only one small volume, and in later days would have been coest, if other work had pressed

On looking at the title-page, I find it was not published till 1855

I had h man the publisher, and had received from him an assurance that the manuscript should be ”looked at” It was ”looked at,” and Messrs Longman made me an offer to publish it at half profits I had no reason to love ”half profits,” but I was very anxious to have my book published, and I acceded It was now_The Macderht that if any success was to be achieved, the time surely had come I had not been impatient; but, if there was to be a ti world did not go mad about _The Warden_; but I soon felt that it had not failed as the others had failed There were notices of it in the press, and I could discover that people around man was complimentary, and after a while informed me that there would be profits to divide At the end of 1855 I received a cheque for 9, 8s 8d, which was the first money I had ever earned by literary work;--that 20 which poor Mr Colburn had beenbeen earned at all At the end of 1856 I received another sureat Indeed, as regarded re would have done better A thousand copies were printed, of which, after a lapse of five or six years, about 300 had to be converted into another forinal form _The Warden_ never reached the essential honour of a second edition

I have already said of the work that it failed altogether in the purport for which it was intended But it has a merit of its own,--a merit by my own perception of which I was enabled to see wherein lay whatever strength I did possess The characters of the bishop, of the archdeacon, of the archdeacon's wife, and especially of the warden, are all well and clearly drawn I had realised to myself a series of portraits, and had been able so to put them on the canvas that my readers should see that which I ift which an author can have lish was good, though frorammar was not unfrequently faulty With such results I had no doubt but that I would at once begin another novel

I will here say one word as a long-deferred answer to an item of criticism which appeared in the _Times_ newspaper as to _The Warden_

In an article--if I rehtly, on _The Warden_ and _Barchester Towers_ coood-natured, but that I take it for granted that the critics of the _Tiood-nature, that little book and its sequel are spoken of in terms which were very pleasant to the author

But there was added to this a gentle word of rebuke at the morbid condition of the author's e in personalities,--the personalities in question having reference to soer of the _Ti potent a the contributors to the _Jupiter_, under which name I certainly did allude to the _Ti away in Ireland, I had not even heard the naentleman connected with the _Times_ newspaper, and could not have intended to represent any individual by Tom Towers As I had created an archdeacon, so had I created a journalist, and the one creation was no more personal or indicative of morbid tendencies than the other If Toentleman then connected with the _Tiain have been very powerful

CHAPTER VI

_BARCHESTER TOWERS_ AND _THE THREE CLERKS_

1855-1858

It was, I think, before I started onthe rural posts that I azine I had read, soon after they came out, the two first volumes of Charles Merivale's _History of the Root into some correspondence with the author's brother as to the author's views about Caesar Hence arose in ate the character of probably the greatest man who ever lived, which tendency in after years produced a little book of which I shall have to speak when its tienerally for Latin literature, which has been one of the chief delights of my later life And I may say that I became at this ti the truth as to his character, as we have all been in regard to Bismarck in these latter days I lived in Caesar, and debated with myself constantly whether he crossed the Rubicon as a tyrant or as a patriot In order that Ithat I was dealing unwarrantably with a subject beyond h a azine article hardly justified,--but which has thoroughly justified itself in the subsequent pursuits of my life I did write two articles, the first ustus, which appeared in the _Dublin University Magazine_ They were the result of very much labour, but there came from them no pecuniary product

I had been very modest when I sent them to the editor, as I had been when I called on John Forster, not venturing to suggest the subject of azine in Dublin, and was told by hie friends, and that articles written to oblige friends were not usually paid for The Dean of Ely, as the author of the work in question now is, was ed, as I certainly had no intention of obliging him by my criticism Afterwards, when I returned to Ireland, I wrote other articles for the sae in its denunciation, was on an official blue-book just then brought out, preparatory to the introduction of competitive examinations for the Civil Service For that and soet what, I was paid Up to the end of 1857 I had received 55 for the hard work of ten years

It hile I was engaged on _Barchester Towers_ that I adopted a syste which, for some years afterwards, I found to be very serviceable to , and the nature of er do it on horseback Railroads afforded me my means of conveyance, and I found that I passed in railway-carriages very many hours of h Carlyle has since toldshould not read, but ”sit still and label his thoughts” But if I intended to , and, at the same time, to do my best for the Post Office, I must turn these hours toI made for myself therefore a little tablet, and found after a few days' exercise that I could write as quickly in a railway-carriage as I could at my desk I worked with a pencil, and what I wrote reater part of _Barchester Towers_ and of the novel which succeeded it, and much also of others subsequent to them My only objection to the practice came from the appearance of literary ostentation, to which I feltto work before four or five fellow-passengers But I got used to it, as I had done to the a the of _Barchester Towers_ I took great delight The bishop and Mrs Proudie were very real to me, as were also the troubles of the archdeacon and the loves of Mr Slope When it was done, Mr W Longman required that it should be subjected to his reader; and he returned the MS tofrom whom I never knew This was accompanied by an offer to print the novel on the half-profit system, with a payment of 100 in advance out of my half-profits,--on condition that I would cogestions required that I should cut the novel down to two volu one and accepting another, al at last that no consideration should induce me to cut out a third of my work I am at a loss to kno such a task could be performed I could burn the MS, no doubt, and write another book on the same story; but hoords out of six are to be withdrawn from a written novel, I cannot conceive I believe such tasks have been attempted--perhaps perforracious to insist on his critic's terms; and the book was published, certainly none the worse, and I do not think much the better, for the care that had been taken with it

The work succeeded just as _The Warden_ had succeeded It achieved no great reputation, but it was one of the novels which novel readers were called upon to read Perhaps I ht to do in saying now that _Barchester Towers_ has become one of those novels which do not die quite at once, which live and are read for perhaps a quarter of a century; but if that be so, its life has been so far prolonged by the vitality of soer brothers _Barchester Towers_ would hardly be so well known as it is had there been no _Frae_ and no _Last Chronicle of Barset_

I received ht It was a positive and arded as a first real step on the road to substantial success

I am well aware that there are many who think that an author in his authorshi+p should not regard money,--nor a painter, or sculptor, or composer in his art I do not know that this unnatural self-sacrifice is supposed to extend itself further A barrister, a clergyineer, and even actors and architects, race follow the bent of human nature, and endeavour to fill their bellies and clothe their backs, and also those of their wives and children, as comfortably as they can by the exercise of their abilities and their crafts They may be as rationally realistic, as may the butchers and the bakers; but the artist and the author forget the high glories of their calling if they condescend to make a money return a first object They who preach this doctrine will be much offended by my theory, and by this book of mine, if my theory and my book come beneath their notice They require the practice of a so-called virtue which is contrary to nature, and which, in my eyes, would be no virtue if it were practised They are like clergyainst the love of money, but who know that the love of money is so distinctive a characteristic of humanity that such sermons are ent piety All ress has come from man's desire to do the best he can for himself and those about him, and civilisation and Christianity itself have been ue this matter out within our breasts, we do all feel it; and we know that the more a man earns the more useful he is to his fellow-men The most useful lawyers, as a rule, have been those who have reatest incomes,--and it is the same with the doctors It would be the sa of bishops always chose the best man And it has in truth been so too in art and authorshi+p Did titian or Rubens disregard their pecuniary rewards? As far as we know, Shakespeare worked always forthe best of his intellect to support his trade as an actor In our own century what literary naher than those of Byron, Tennyson, Scott, dickens, Macaulay, and Carlyle?

And I think I lected the pecuniary result of their labours Now and then a , whether it be in law, in physic, in religious teaching, in art, or literature, ard money All will honour his enthusiasreat object of men's ill be blameless But it is a mistake to suppose that a man is a better man because he despisesso suffer a defeat Who does not desire to be hospitable to his friends, generous to the poor, liberal to all, munificent to his children, and to be hi fear which poverty creates? The subject will not stand an arguard payht brains to the welfare of the public

Brains that are unbought will never serve the public hts, and you would very soon take away froland her authors

I say this here, because it is o on to state what to me has been the result of arded, so that by my exa himself to literature with industry, perseverance, certain necessary aptitudes, and fair average talents,a livelihood, as another man does in another profession The result with me has been comfortable but not splendid, as I think was to have been expected froifts

I have certainly always had also before my eyes the charms of reputation Over and above theto be so more than a clerk in the Post Office To be known as somebody,--to be Anthony Trollope if it be no eneral one, and I think beneficent It is that which has been called the ”last infirmity of noble mind” The infirmity is so human that the man who lacks it is either above or below humanity I own to the infir to literature as a profession was that which is cooes to the Bar, and to the baker when he sets up his oven I wished to ht live in comfort

If indeed a man writes his books badly, or paints his pictures badly, because he canthem well, and at the same time proclaims them to be the best he can do,--if in fact he sells shoddy for broadcloth,--he is dishonest, as is any other fraudulent dealer So may be the barrister who takes yman who is content to live on a sinecure No doubt the artist or the author may have a difficulty which will not occur to the seller of cloth, in settling within hih has been given, and when the task has been scaer as to which he is bound to be severe with himself--in which he should feel that his conscience should be set fairly in the balance against the natural bias of his interest If he do not do so, sooner or later his dishonesty will be discovered, and will be estioverned only by the plain rules of honesty which should govern us all Having said so o on to attribute to the pecuniary result of my labours all the importance which I felt them to have at the time