fj^l. THE HISTORY OF AUTHORS BY PROFESSION. 89 

 interpofed between the author and the public. The 

 profits of literature are abridged, while its profeflbrs 

 are fubjecled to a new dependence. 



But while the intereft of learning is thus wounded, 

 the interelt of mankind is eflentially promoted. 1 hefe 

 interefts are, in fadl, oppofite ; for it is the objeft of 

 the author to enhance the value of his produce, and that 

 of the public, to procure it as eafily as they can. The 

 art of printing, and the profeffion of bookfeller, facili- 

 tate the difperlion of literary produce. In the fame 

 proportion, they therefore lower the market of know- 

 ledge, and, perhaps, in fonie degree, diminifh the im- 

 ' portance of authors, as they diffufe information more 

 widely among men, 



I have thus attempted to invefligate a fubie£l which 

 has hitherto been little treated. In the firfl number, I 

 have endeavoured to fhew, that a body of men, who 

 may be called authors by profe(jion, exill in every form 

 of fociety. In the fecond, I have confidered the fuc- 

 cefTive changes which they undergo, and the caufes 

 which produce the fucceffion ; and in the third and 

 fourth, 1 have attempted to illuftrate and eftablifli the 

 theory, by an application of it to the literary hiftory of 

 England and of Greece. The details of the fubjeft are 

 infinite : It was fufficient for me to have contemplated 

 its more general afpefts ; and fliould I refurAe the pen 

 to treat it, it would be to offer fome mifcellaneous 

 remarks, which could not, with propriety, be compre- 

 hended in a fyftematic view. 



Critical Remarks on foine of the moji e?nineni Hijlorians 



of Kngland. 

 Though we are now in the clofe of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, the hiftory of tliis ifland has never been ftudied 

 with proper attention. That portion of it, in particu- 

 lar, which precedes the reformation, feems, at prefent, 

 Vol. III. f M 



