the breach that the Trials had created. Sir Richard became more
exacting and more than ever critical. {49b} The end could not be far
off. Borrow had come to London determined to be an author, and by no
juggling with facts could his present drudgery be considered as
authorship. Occasionally his mind reverted to the manuscripts in the
green box, his faith in which continued undiminished. He made
further efforts to get his translations published, but everywhere the
answer was the same, in effect, "A drug, sir, a drug!"

At last he determined to approach John Murray (the Second), "Glorious
John, who lived at the western end of the town"; but he called many
times without being successful in seeing him. Another seventeen
years were to elapse before he was to meet and be published by John
Murray.

Yet another dispute arose between Borrow and Sir Richard Phillips.
Neither appeared to have realised the supreme folly of entrusting to
a young Englishman the translation into German of an English work. A
novel would have presented almost insurmountable difficulties; but a
work of philosophy! The whole project was absurd. The diction of
philosophy in all languages is individual, just as it is in other
branches of science, and a very thorough knowledge of, and deep
reading in both languages are necessary to qualify a man to translate
from a foreign tongue into his own. To expect an inexperienced youth
to reverse the order seems to suggest that Sir Richard Phillips must
have been a publisher whose enthusiasm was greater than his judgment.

One day when calling at Tavistock Square, Borrow found Sir Richard in
a fury of rage. He had submitted the first chapter of the
translation of Proximate Causes to some Germans, who found it utterly