19 January 1874 – 25 January 1874

C. has a bad cold, very unusual with him. We call at Froude's, who is gone out. C. manages to get as far as Sloane St. — his laughing always ends in a cough. Speaks of Sartor Resartus. ' I did not then, and never did, and do not now, think highly of Sartor. And when I get letters such as often come from young men — Oh, so impressed with Sartor ! it almost makes me sick. But I thought I might perhaps get ^^150 for it.' Sartor sold better than any of C.'s other books in the cheap edition. He used to mention this, with a protest against ' the foolish people ' who showed this preference for a book ' of very little value.' He often said, ' The only book of mine I care at all about is the Cromwell.^ C. told me he at first got Sartor printed with capital letters to all the nouns, but on full consideration gave up the plan. One complete copy was so printed, and in after years he sent this away in a box of books, gift to a needy individual whose name I forget (if he told me). C. never heard more about said box, and thinks it was perhaps lost in transit. So the Bookstall-hunter may set down this unique copy of Sartor among his possible discoveries. Mem. — Sartor Resartus : was the title suggested by an old song called ' The Tailor Done-over ' ? * The Niebelungen Lied is the prettiest thing we have out of the Middle Ages. There is no English transla- tion of it. That would be a fine thing for you to do, it would be a lasting work. I felt, once, I had got into it, and could have done it if I had been able to write poetry.'