Stock is free to act as he likes. I was from the first one of
those (the majority) who assented to the republication, acting herein
on behalf of my brother, then lately deceased, as well as of myself.
I am quite aware that some of the articles in "The Germ" are far from
good, and some others, though good in essentials, are to a certain
extent juvenile; but juvenility is anything but uninteresting when it
is that of such men as Coventry Patmore and Dante Rossetti. "The
Germ" contains nothing of which, in spirit and in purport, the
writers need be ashamed. If people like to read it without paying
fancy prices for the original edition, they were and are, so far as I
am concerned, welcome to do so. Before Mr. Stock's long-standing
scheme could be legally carried into effect, an American publisher,
Mr. Mosher, towards the close of 1898, brought out a handsome reprint
of "The Germ" (not in any wise a facsimile), and a few of the copies
were placed on sale in London.{3} Mr. Mosher gave as an introduction
to his volume an article by the late J. Ashcroft Noble which
originally appeared in an English magazine in May 1882. This article
is entitled "A Pre-Raphaelite Magazine." It is written in a spirit of
generous sympathy, and is mostly correct in its facts. I may here
mention another article on "The Germ," also published, towards 1868,
in some magazine.
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