184 Nations lately become Literary. [Ch. XXVI. 



earth in every species of literary production. She 

 gives birth annually to double the number of pub- , 

 lications that appear in France, and to nearly 

 treble the number that are issued in Great Britain 

 and Ireland *. Instead of being despised as she 

 was at the beginning of the century for furnish- 

 ing scarcely any other than hewers of ivood and 

 draivers of water to the republic of letters, she 

 has produced, within the last fifty years, histo- 

 rians, poets, and dramatists, whose writings evince, 

 that judgement, acuteness, imagination, elegant 

 taste^ and every qualification for fine writing, 

 abound among her people. In fact, she has in 

 several respects pushed her literary progress to a 

 degree hitherto attained by no other nation, and 

 affords a striking example of the influence of 

 literature on national character. 



But, while the progress of Germany in liberal 

 knowledge, the industry of her authors, the en- 

 terprise of her booksellers, and the growth of taste 



* The whole population of Germany is not supposed to exceed 

 ihirt}) millions. In the Austrian dominions the class of peasants 

 are mostly serfs, or predial slaves, of which it is probable few are 

 able to read. In the other provinces, especially Suabia, West- 

 phalia, and the Upper Rhine, the number must be very great of 

 those who, if they have been taught to read at all, never devote 

 any part of their attention to books. Not more than ten millions 

 of the thirty are of the reading age ; and it is a very liberal cal- 

 culation to suppose, that, of these ^.en millions, not more than one 

 tenth are in the habit of purchasing and perusing books. Hence, 

 allowing the number of authors by profession to be fifteen thoii' 

 sand, which is said by some to be much below the real num- 

 ber, it appears, that, for every sixty-six readers, there is one who 

 lives by the trade of authorship. — See New York Month. Mag. 

 vol. ii, p. 9. 



