Letter 249 The Hague, 1 December 1882
Dear Theo,
A few days ago I received a letter from Rappard, with whom I have been corresponding about the experiments in lithography, and who is also making some experiments himself.
I had incidentally written him, 鈥淚 have had another obstacle, a letter with money which was especially intended for the experiments got lost.鈥?p style="line-height:25px;text-indent:32px"> In answer to this, he wrote: 鈥淒on鈥檛 let this trouble you, and count on me if you cannot continue or if you need something.鈥?I had not written it to him because I expected him to say such a thing, but because I wanted him, for his part, to make a few more experiments. Still, it pleased me, because such proofs of sympathy are rare. I answered him, For the moment there is no need of it, but if it really became a question of my not being able to continue, I would accept your aid. And I told him how much I appreciated it. You see now that this is one of the cases which I wrote you about in my last letter.
Of course the drawing, the stone, the printing, the paper, cause expenses, but, relatively speaking, they are small. Sheets such as the last one I sent you, for instance, as well as a new one I finished last night and which is ready, would, I think, be perfectly suitable for a popular publication, which is so very, very necessary, here in Holland even more than anywhere else.
Now, an enterprise such as the drawing and printing of a series of, for instance, thirty sheets of workmen types 鈥?a sower, a digger, a woodcutter, a ploughman, a washerwoman, then also a child鈥檚 cradle or a man from the almshouse 鈥?well, the whole immeasurable field lies open, there are plenty of beautiful subjects 鈥? can one undertake it or not? The question goes even deeper: it is a duty, and is it right or is it wrong? That鈥檚 the question.
If I were a man of means, I shouldn鈥檛 hesitate to decide, I should say, 鈥淓n avant et plus vite que 莽a. [Quick march, and hurry up.]
But here it is different 鈥?may one, must one, can one involve and carry along others whom one needs,
without whom one cannot accomplish it, in an enterprise doubtful of success? I wouldn鈥檛 spare myself. By helping me, you have shown that you do not spare yourself either. But others think it both wrong and foolish of you to have anything to do with me, and they think my own actions even more foolish; and many who at first were full of good will changed their opinion, and their courage and enthusiasm were as shortlived as a straw-fire.
In my opinion they are indeed quite wrong, for neither you nor I act foolishly in this matter. The whole thing started a short time ago with a word from you, 鈥淚 met Buhot, who knows a certain way of lithographing which I will tell you more about later; you ought to make some experiments with the paper he is going to send you.鈥?This matter, with its relatively insignificant beginning at first, has in a short time assumed more important proportions to me.
I see that with persistence and perseverance it might become something not at all unnecessary, but definitely good and useful.
It has always been said that in Holland we cannot make prints for the people 鈥?I have never been able to believe it, I see now that it can be done The Society for General Welfare has bolstered up Elsevier in Rotterdam with thousands of guilders for the publication of The Swallow. Did The Swallow become a good thing? No, though it had a few beautiful sheets, it was too uninteresting, not serious, not powerful, not strong enough; an imitation of what the English do, not original enough.
There are two systems: How not to do it and How to do it. How not to do it was, I鈥檓 afraid, Elsevier鈥檚 underlying motive, otherwise he would have done it, even if he had had to pay for it himself. How-not-todo- it argues thus: The Society gave me so and so much; I get so and so much from the sale; I must have so and so much of this for my own pocket. I must follow my colleagues鈥?custom, otherwise they will call me a mauvais coucheur or a spoil-sport, etc.
So, instead of saying what was written under a picture by Millais,1 "It might be done, and if so, we should do it," Elsevier and thousands like him say it can鈥檛 be done, or they do it sloppily and without enough energy. I do not know the publishers of The Swallow well enough to be able to say exactly whose fault it is; however, I know their magazine well enough to take it upon myself to say, "You have not made it what it might have been, it should and might have been better." And in addition to this I say, whatever the case may be now, at all times there have been clever, true, brave,
honest Dutchmen 鈥?even during times when everything was generally slack and enervated and wrong, the fire was found burning here and there in some hidden corner. How much more so during those periods when the Dutch people were ranked among the first and best.
So what is needed is courage and self-sacrifice and risking something, not for gain, but because it is useful and good; one must retain one鈥檚 trust in one鈥檚 fellow creatures and fellow countrymen in general.
Before I go further, however, I want to state this: I personally will have nothing to do with this business of prints for the people, except for making them if such a thing is undertaken. It must be a public service, not a publishing venture. However, as it is necessary to come into some contact with the 鈥樷