success, and then act accordingly. Hawthorne succeeded in his way, and Mr.
M.T. Walworth in his way; and each of these would have been very
unreasonable if he had expected to succeed in both ways. There is always an
opening for careful and conscientious literary work; and by such work many
persons obtain a modest support. There are also some great prizes to be
won; but these are commonly, though not always, won by work of a more
temporary and sensational kind. Make your choice; and, when you have got
precisely what you asked for, do not complain because you have missed what
you would not take.




THE CAREER OF LETTERS


A young girl of some talent once told me that she had devoted herself to
"the career of letters." I found, on inquiry, that she had obtained a
situation as writer of society gossip for a New York newspaper. I can
hardly imagine any life that leads more directly away from any really
literary career, or any life about which it is harder to give counsel. The
work of a newspaper correspondent, especially in the "society" direction,
is so full of trials and temptations, for one of either sex, in our dear,
inquisitive, gossiping America, that one cannot help watching with especial
solicitude all women who enter it. Their special gifts as women are a
source of danger: they are keener of observation from the very fact of
their sex, more active in curiosity, more skilful in achieving their ends;
in a world of gossip they are the queens, and men but their subjects, hence
their greater danger.