436 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



curious, and which cannot with any propriety 

 be introduced in a regular hiftory. There have 

 been many of thefe wrote and publifhed in 

 England, which are equally replete with enter- 

 tainment and inftrudtion. 



XII. How much is it to be wifhed, that the 

 reading of thefe biographies, thefe lives of illuf- 

 trious literati, might excite men of exalted ge- 

 nius to exert all their powers in the career of 

 fcience ! But how unfortunate if they mould 

 there find motives for the contrary? If they 

 fliould be influenced by the fate of a Tfchirn- 

 haus, who fpent all his fortune in labouring, 

 with the moll happy fuccefs, to enlighten man- 

 kind, and to make his name revered by all 

 future ages -, who was the glory of his country, 

 and caufed it to abound with riches. , The ava- 

 rice of moft bookiellers is the principal caufe of 

 the great fcarcity of excellent works : but ava- 

 rice, ftill more than other crimes, carries its pro- 

 per punifhment with it: the (lender fortune of 

 moft authors will not permit them to labour 

 for glory alone, the laurels of Apollo will but 

 badly fupport a numerous family : from hence 

 proceeds that vaft number of unfinimed works, 

 paid by the meet, which fill the bookfellers 

 fhops, load the ihelves of each library, and in 

 the end ruin the proprietors. And yon, the 

 arbiters of human fate, there are born in your 

 dominions men of rare genius, of unbounded 

 talents : while they live, you allow them a bare 



Jfubfiftence, 



