--Pursuits of Fashion.
Only contrive to obtain the character of an eccentric, and you may ride
the _free horse_ round the circle of your acquaintance for the remainder
of your life. If my readers are not by this time fully satisfied of my
peculiar claims to the appellation of an _oddity_, I have no hopes of
obtaining pardon for the past whims and fancies of a volatile muse,
or anticipating patronage for the future wanderings of a restless
and inquisitive humorist. But my bookseller, a steady, persevering,
inflexible sort of personage, whose habits of business are as rigid as a
citizen of the last century, or a puritan of the Cromwell commonwealth,
has lately suffered the marble muscles of his frigid countenance to
unbend with a sort of mechanical ~193~~inclination to an expression
of--what shall I say--lib--lib--liberality; no, no, that will never
do for a bookseller--graciousness--ay, that's a better phrase for the
purpose; more characteristic of his manner, and more congenial to my
own feelings. Well, to be plain then, whenever a young author can pass
through an interview with the headman of the firm without hearing any
thing in the shape of melancholy musings, serious disappointments,
large numbers on hand, doubtful speculation, and such like pleasant
innuendoes, he may rest satisfied that his book is selling well, and
his publisher realizing a fair proportion of profit for his adventurous
spirit.
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