friends or republication by your friends, with the implication that I was averse to it." And Mr. Spencer was here substantially right. Although there may have been no apprehension that Mr. Harrison's avowed friends would move in reprinting the book, yet, if it had been done by anybody but the Appletons, the inevitable inference would have been that their author had been so badly handled that they declined to back him. The book was looked for from Mr. Spencer's publishers, they had printed it in their magazine, they issued all his works, there was a demand for the volume which was certain to make it a safe business venture, and it represented two sides or schools of thought: if, under all these circumstances, D. Appleton & Co. had left the work for others to publish, the certain construction would have been that the book was abandoned to the party opposed to Mr. Spencer. This is the aspect of the case which he had to meet, and it is not at all affected by Mr. Harrison's statement that his friends had no idea of printing the controversy.
Another explanation seems here called for. Those who will refer to the second paragraph of my letter, quoted by Mr. Spencer, will observe both an indecision and a confusion in the statement. This was due, not only to hasty writing, but to some perplexity in my own mind. I said, "If I thought no one else would print the correspondence" (controversy), "I should be in favor of our not doing it"; and I then go on to give reasons for this conclusion, ending with the remark, "On the whole, it may be politic to reprint." Apparently this indifference to publication is inconsistent with the various reasons I have given for strongly desiring it. But there was a consideration not mentioned in the letter which weighed much with me at the time. I was in very bad health, and was urged by physicians and friends to go South without delay. It seemed therefore to be impracticable, if not impossible, for me to give that attention to the editing and publication of the volume which were prompted by my interest in it. But it will be noticed that, under this conflict of inclinations, though I gave some trivial reasons for non-publication, the conclusion favors reprinting. This shows the predominant feeling, even in a time of depression; and I must say, as a matter of fact that, though referring the matter as I did in a hurried note to Mr. Spencer, I had not for a moment really relinquished the purpose of bringing out the book. This explanation is necessary, that the responsibility may rest where it properly belongs. Mr. Harrison lays stress upon Spencer's agency in "promoting and assisting" in the production of "a volume for which you are responsible, and which you have authorized and adopt." But though Mr. Spencer chose to take the responsibility because he had assented to it, and furnished some notes for it, yet it was neither by his suggestion, procurement, nor desire that the book was issued; and truth requires me here to say that, if he had discouraged or even opposed it, the book would probably have been reprinted by D. Appleton &
