This manifest inferiority of the last half of the volume, as well as its too great price, stopped the sale,--and after a time with a high hand all the copies were sold off by auction, to the loss of both publisher and author.

As I had supplied gratis the plates of Hatchards' edition, buying up the half not mine and giving the other, I found myself thus mulcted in a large sum, for which I have only to show in return about a hundredweight of wood-blocks and stereotypes:--which may be bought by any publisher at bargain price.

Altogether the whole affair was unsatisfactory and disappointing.

Individuals may be genial, honest, and considerate, but a company or a partnership simply looks to the hardest bargain in the shrewdest way.

Of all this I'll complain, vainly enough, no more.
In their several places, many anecdotes about "Proverbial Philosophy" shall duly appear: I may mention one or two now, as timely.