1827.] On Reading Neto Books. 25 



that, in an age when the most universally-admitted claim to public distinc- 

 tion is literary merit, the attaining this distinction is almost a sure title to 

 public contempt and obloquy.* They cry you up, because you are 

 unknown, and do not excite their jealousy ; and run you down, when they 

 have thus distinguished you, out of envy and spleen at the very idol they 

 have set up. A public favourite is " kept like an apple in the jaw of an 

 ape first mouthed, to be afterwards swallowed. When they need what 

 you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and spunge, you shall be dry 

 again." At lirst they think only of the pleasure or advantage they receive : 

 but, on reflection, they are mortified at the superioiity implied in 

 this involuntary concession, and are determined to be even with you the very. 

 first opportunity. What is the prevailing spirit of modern literature ? To 

 defame men of letters. What are the publications that succeed ? Those 

 that pretend to teach the public that the persons they have been accus-. 

 tomed unwittingly to look up to as the lights of the earth are no better than 

 themselves, or a set of vagabonds or miscreants that should be hunted out 

 of society.f Hence men of letters, losing their self-respect, become 

 government-tools, and prostitute their talents to the most infamous purposes, 

 or turn dandy scribblers, and set up for gentlemen authors in their own 

 defence. I like the Order of the Jesuits better than this : they made them- 

 selves respected by the laity, kept their own secret, and did not prey on 

 one another. Resume then, oh ! Learning, thy robe pontifical ; clothe 

 thyself in pride and purple; join the sacred to the profane; wield both 

 worlds ; instead of twopenny trash and mechanics' magazines, issue bulls 

 and decretals ; say not, let there be light, but darkness visible ; draw a 

 bandage over the e^es of the ignorant and unlettered; hang the terrors of 

 superstition and despotism over them ; and for thy pains they will bless 

 thee : children will pull off their caps as thou dost pass ; women will cour- 

 tesy ; the old will wipe their beards ; and thou wilt rule once more over 

 the base serving people, clowns, and nobles, with a rod of iron ! 



W. H. 



* Is not this partly owing to the disappointment of the public at finding any defect i n 

 their idol ? 



f An old friend of mine, when he read (he abuse and billingsgate poured out in certain 

 Tory publications, used to congratulate himself upon it as a favourable sign of the times, 

 and of the progressive improvement of our manners. Where we now called names, we for- 

 merly burnt each other at a stake ; and all the malice of the heart flew to the tongue and 

 vented itself in scolding, instead of crusades and auto-da- fes the nobler revenge of our 

 ancestors for a difference of opinion. An author now libels a prince ; and, if he takes the 

 law of him or throws him into gaol, it is looked upon sis a harsh and ungentle manly pro- 

 ceeding. He, therefore, gets a dirty Secretary to employ a dirty bookseller, to hire a set 

 of dirty scribblers, to pelt him with dirt and cover him with blackguard epithets till he is 

 hardly in a condition to walk the streets. This is hard measure, no doubt, and base ingra- 

 titude on the part of the public, according to the imaginary dignity and natural precedence 

 which authors take of kings ; but the latter are men, and will have their revenge where they 

 can get it. They have no longer their old summary appeal their will may still be good 

 to the dungeon and the dagger. Those who " speak evil of dignities'' may, therefore, think 

 themselves well off in being merely sent to Coventry ; and, besides, if they have plucky 

 they can make a Parthian retreat, and shoot poisoned arrows behind them. The good 

 people of Florence lift up their hands when they are shewn the caricatures in the Queen's 

 Matrimonial-Ladder, and ask if they are really a likeness of the King ? 



M.M. New Scrie.s.VoL< IV. No, 19. E 



