THE REWARDS OF LITERATURE.
“You were probably strongly fascinated by the supposed rewards of a literary career?”
“Yes. A definite literary ambition grew up in me, and in the long reveries of the afternoon, when I was distributing my case in the printing office, I fashioned a future of overpowering magnificence and undying celebrity. I should be ashamed to say what literary triumphs I achieved in those preposterous deliriums. But I realize now that such dreams are nerving, and sustain one in an otherwise barren struggle.”
“Were you ever tempted and willing to abandon your object of a literary life for something else?”
“I was once. My first and only essay, aside from literature, was in the realm of law. It was arranged with a United States senator that I should study law in his office. I tried it a month, but almost from the first day, I yearned to return to my books. I had not only to go back to literature, but to the printing office, and I gladly chose to do it,—a step I never regretted.”
“You started out to attain personal distinction and happiness, did you not?”
“I did.”