ligl. HISTORY OF AUTHORS BY PROFESSION. I5 



diftant dependence. The diflcilution of thofe great 

 houfeholds which are the channel of the expenditure ai 

 the opulent in a certain flaie of manners, gives patron- 

 age a new form. The patron ftill rewards the poet ; 

 but it is not by hofpitality, it is by prefents. He pays 

 him in money, not in kind. This intercourfe continues 

 in a greater or lefs degree from tlie firfl appearance of 

 moderate refinement to the meridian fplendour of lite- 

 rature. Examine the firfl; dawnings of polite letters in 

 a country. There will always be found fome one pa- 

 tron, of whofe houfehold all the prpfeflors of literature 

 are but a fort of extra officers. A Leo X, a Francis I, 

 a Cofmo de Medicis, will be found, though with lefs 

 fplendid reputation, in every country. But the diffufioii 

 of literature raifes rival patrons, and the condition of 

 the author flill farther recedes from domeftic depend- 

 ence — The habits of reading, at length, reach that 

 portion of mankind, who form the public ; and their 

 collective patronage divides with individual munificence, 

 the hopes and the homage of the author. Meantime, 

 the fuffrage of the public becomes daily more import- 

 ant, from the increafe of its literary ardour ; while the 

 fame caufe increafes the number of pretenders to a de- 

 gree fo formidable, as to deter patrons from the labour 

 oi feleBion, and to reduce them to a dilemma in which 

 they muft either launcli into an expenditure too im- 

 menfe for their revenue, or attempt a difcrimination 

 too laborious for tlieir indolence, and too arduous for 

 their fkilL They take refuge in indifcriminate rejec- 

 tion ; patronage ceafes, and the profeffion of letters is 

 once more thrown on the public. Jiuthorjlnp thusclof- 

 es as it had opened the progrefs. — Authors had exijled 

 m the favage Jlatc, hecaufe there ivere too few patrons ; 

 and they revived in the mojl civilized, hecanje there were 

 too many authors. The fame principle operated in both 

 cafes. Whether there are too icw Jources, or too many 

 ohje^s of patronage, is in effe6l of tlic fame amount. 



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