A dozen apologies, principal and interest, are due to our correspondents for delaying some of their communications to the next number. But circumstances required that I should write nearly all this number myself, and give the next chiefly to correspondents. Few can enter into the feelings and labors of one who has to write on a dozen of distinct subjects in the rapidity necessary to keep pace with the calls of the public and the daily calls of a periodical press. By the time we have got ourselves up to the writing-point upon any subject, and have got the oil melted on the wheels of the mind, the fastidious taste of the times whispers in our ear, "This is as much as we can bear, at one sitting, on this subject: let us have something else." One says, "This is too long;" another, "It is too short;" and a third, "It is out of place." Thus is the mind impeded in its career, and half the time lost in taking off one set of harness and in gearing it anew for another car. However, none but authors know the pangs [540] of our travails, and therefore we can expect no sympathy from readers. All we ask is forgiveness when they think we sin against their wishes and taste.

EDITOR.      

Source:

Alexander Campbell. "A Dozen Apologies in One." The Millennial Harbinger 3 (March 1832): 144.

[MHA2 540-541]