422 Recapitulation. 



dity of composition are many and great. Writers 

 of the most exalted genius and extensive learning, 

 when they proceed in this manner, must throw into 

 their volumes much crude and indigested matter; 

 and when those of ordinary capacity presume to 

 indulge in the same haste, nothing can be expect- 

 ed from them but half-formed conceptions, and 

 useless, if not mischievous productions. Hence, 

 the last age is distinguished above all others, by 

 producing thousands of worthless volumes, which 

 encumber the shelves of libraries, and consume,, 

 without profit, the time of unwary readers. 



The spirit of trade, by which the authors and 

 publishers of books first began, in the eighteenth 

 century, to be actuated in any considerable degree, 

 has produced, and still continues to produce ano- 

 ther serious evil. It too often leads men to write, 

 not upon a sober conviction of truth, utility, and 

 duty, but in accommodation to the public taste, 

 however depraved, and with a view to the most 

 advantageous sale. When pecuniary emolument 

 is the leading motive to publication, books will 

 not only be injuriously multiplied, but they will 

 also be composed on the sordid calculation of ob- 

 taining the greatest number of purchasers. Hence, 

 the temptation to sacrifice virtue at the shrine of 

 avarice. Hence, the licentious and seductive cha- 

 racter of many of those works which have had the 

 greatest circulation in modern times, and which 

 have produced the greatest emolument to their 

 authors. 



From the unprecedented spirit of publication 

 which the eighteenth century exhibited, it has 

 happened, as a natural consequence, that the cha- 

 racter of an author has become lower in the pub- 

 lic estimation, than it generally stood in preceding 

 ages. Every object loses something of its value in 

 the public esteem, in consequence of being cheap 



