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Charlotte M. Yonge's "Little Duke," I doubt if Mrs. Burnett knows whence
came to her the suggestion to write "Little Lord Fauntleroy," but I
know; it came to her from reading "The Prince and the Pauper." In all my
life I have never originated an idea, and neither has she, nor anybody
else.
Man's mind is a clever machine, and can work up materials into ingenious
fancies and ideas, but it can't create the material; none but the gods
can do that. In Sweden I saw a vast machine receive a block of wood, and
turn it into marketable matches in two minutes. It could do everything
but make the wood. That is the kind of machine the human mind is. Maybe
this is not a large compliment, but it is all I can afford.....
Your friend and well-wisher
S. L. CLEMENS.
*
****
To Mrs. H. H. Rogers, in Fair Hawn, Mass.:
REDDING, CONN, Aug. 12, 1908.
DEAR MRS. ROGERS, I believe I am the wellest man on the planet to-day,
and good for a trip to Fair Haven (which I discussed with the Captain
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