300 RecapilidatiojT. 



learning, when they proceed in this manner, must- 

 throw into their volumes much crude and indi- 

 gested matter; and when those of ordinary capa- 

 city presume to indulge in the same haste, no- 

 thing can be expected from them but half-formed 

 conceptions, and useless, if not mischievous pro- 

 ductions. 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 de- 

 gree, has produced, and still continues to pro- 

 duce another 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 pecu- 

 niary emolument is the leading motive to publi- 

 cation, books will not only be injuriously mul- 

 tiplied, but they will also be composed on the 

 sordid calculation of obtaining the greatest num- 

 ber of purchasers. Hence the temptation to sa- 

 crifice virtue at the shrine of avarice. Hence 

 the licentious and seductive character of many 

 of those works which have had the greatest circu- 

 lation in modern times, and which have produced 

 the greatest emolument to their authors. 



From the unprecedented spirit of publicatiofrt 

 which the eighteenth century exhibited, it has 

 happened, as a natural consequence, that the cha- 

 racter of an mithor has become lower in the pub- 



