424
PARTISAN REVIEW
Bar tleby, the lawyer had offered to continue by mail the mora l bond he
feels:
" If
hereafter in your n ew place o f abode I can be of service to you ,
do no t fail to advise me by leller. " Lellers express the poss ibility of
helpfulness infinitely ex tended . Indeed, mid-nineteenth century Amer–
icans celebrated their newl y inexpensive and swelling pos ta l sys tem as
a "bond o f union " for the busy, growing, sca llered comin en
l.
T he
lawyer , however, imagines Bartl eby in tha t agen cy o f the pos t offi ce
which des troys, no t deli vers lellers. H e connec ts dead lellers- acts of
help adequate in themse lves tha t di e in no t reaching their recipiem s–
to the imagined deaths of those who di e in unrelieved n eed , never
receiving th em. And lellers bearing urgent h elp still speed
to
death–
onl y in the sequel does the lawyer ass ume the present tense. T he story
has no t been onl y a weird ep isode, but an aspect of life.
Wh y, then , are calamities unreli eved? Are there no t enough bank–
no tes, is there insufficient pardon ? Or can we ever know compl eted acts
adequa te to the needful existence of ano ther?
