series ready:  and so, leaving Rickerby as an unfruitful publisher (though, as will soon appear, he produced other books for me) I went to Hatchards; with whom I had a long and prosperous career—­receiving annually from L500 to L800 a year, and in the aggregate having benefited both them and myself—­for we shared equally—­by something like, L10,000 a piece.  But in the course of time, the old grandfather and the father of the house, excellent men both, went severally to the Better Land, and I had published other books elsewhere, as will be seen, anon:  and, amongst other things, Mr. Bertrand Payne, who represented the respectable poetic house of Moxon, desired to include me in his Beauties of the Poets, and in order to that, having previously obtained license both from me and Messrs. Hall & Virtue to select specimens of my lyrics for his volume, asked me to let him add a few bits of Proverbial; to this I willingly assented, but found myself repulsed by the temporary chief at Hatchards’—­lately a subordinate—­with a direct refusal to permit any portion of my book, of which they had a three years’ lease then nearly out, to be included in the specimen volume until, the whole remainder copies were sold off.  Mr. Payne on that immediately bought all they had, writing a cheque of L900 in payment down,—­whereof I got one-half, as I should have done if sold at Hatchards’.  I then of course went equitably over to Moxon’s,—­and not long after published my third series with that house, at Mr. Payne’s suggestion and solicitation:  it was not a financial success, any more than others in that quarter; but I was paid by having my later thoughts on topics of the day so handsomely published at no cost of mine.  The house of Moxon having its reverses,—­and a fourth and final series of “Proverbial Philosophy” having grown up meanwhile, I concluded to go to Ward & Lock, that my four series might for wider circulation be all included in one cheap volume, beautifully got up, and with them I have since had some small success:  for though the royalty is only about a penny a volume, the numbers licensed have been an edition of 20,000 succeeded in the course of years by another of 30,000; and I still leave the book with them so far as that cheap issue is concerned.

As, however, I desired to meet the wish of many friends and others of the public who often asked for a handsomer form, suggesting a reproduction of Hatchards’ quarto, with additional illustrations for the new matter, I applied to Cassell, and made arrangements to have the whole four series issued piecemeal in weekly or monthly parts, so as to meet (as Cassell’s manager suggested) a certain demand from the middle and artisan class; seeing that the aristocracy and gentry had bought the whole volume so freely, but sixpenny parts in a wider field might bring on a new sale.  I did not then know that Cassell’s had numerous serials already on hand, and that many of them were unremunerative; and so I was a little