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beauty of colours, and of the harmony or difproportion of 

 figures in painting ; the deaf will prate of difcords in tnuCic ; 

 and thofe who have no pretenfions to literature, will pro- 

 nounce, with an unpardonable prefamption, on books of 

 fcience ; and thofe who have little or no acquaintance with 

 cither the fpeculative or praftical principles of rehgion, will 

 arraign the btH treatifc on divine f,ibjec;is, though they do not 

 underlland the very language of the Scripture, nor the com- 

 mon terms or phrafes ufed m Chrillianity. Judges of ano- 

 ther 'defcription fet themfelvts up to decide in favour of 

 an author, or againft him, according to the company they 

 have kept, and the judgment pronounced concerning a book 

 by others of their own (tamp or iize, though they have no 

 knowledge or tafte of the fubjeA themfelves. Thefe, with 

 a fluent and voluble tongue, become mere echoes of the 

 pi-aifes or ccnfnres of other men. Others, again, pafs judg- 

 ment from the ftcret ftimulations of vanity, pride, or envy ; 

 and in order to jallify an un warrantable and fevere cen- 

 fure, they will allege a miftake or two, which they have dif- 

 covercd, or a few fentiments and expreifions not fuited to 

 their capricious tallc and humour. It is, however, an indi- 

 cation of perverfenefs and prejudice, to rail at uny human 

 performance becaufe it is not abl'olutely perfeft. Horace 

 has glvtu us a better example : 



<• Sunt dclifta tamen, qaibus ignoviffe vtlimus : 



Nam iiique chorda fonum reddit, quern vult manus, ct 



mens, 

 Pofcentlque giavem perfaspe remittit acutum ; 

 Nlc fciiiper ferict quodcunque minabitur aicus 

 Verum, ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego pancis 

 OtTcndar maculis, quas aut incnria fudit, 

 Aut humana parum cavit natura." — De Art. Poet. 

 " De not too rigidly ceniorious : 



A ilring nuiy j;ir in the bcft mailer's hand, 

 And the moil {liilful archer mifs his aim ; 

 So in a poem elegantly writ, 

 I will not quarrel with a fmall miftake, 

 Such as onr nature's frailty mayexcnfe." Roscommon. 

 Another, and very freqnent fault in palTmg judgment upon 

 books, is this, that perfons fpread the fame praifcs, or the 

 fame reproaches, over a whole treatife, which are jullly ap- 

 plicable only to fonie detached parts of it. After all, when 

 any pcrfon pretends to give his judgment of a book, we 

 fhould confider whether he be a capable judge, or whether 

 he may not lie under fome u ihappy bias or prejudice, for or 

 againft it, or whether he has made a fufhcient inquiry to 

 enable him for forming a juil opinion. Watts's Improvement 

 of the Mind apnd Works, vol. v. ch. 4 — 5. 



See farther concerning books, in the writers on literary 

 hillory, libraries, iludies, learning, arts, and fciences ; more 

 cfpecialty in Salden, Bartholin, Hodannus, Sacchinus, Bail- 

 let, Buddtus, Saalbach, Puthcrbeus, Raynaud, Schufner, 

 Ijaauffer, Schwartzius, Crenius, Morhoff, and others, who 

 have written treatifes exprcfs concerning books. Chrift. L.i- 

 bcnus, i.e. Gnl. Saldenus, ^iQ'kK^iKta,, five de Libris fcri- 

 iendis et legendis, Ultrai. 1681. i2mo. et. Amftcl. 1688, 8vo. 

 Struv. Introd. ad Hill. Liter, c.5. § 21. p. 454. Th. 

 Bartholin!, de Libris legendis, 167b, 8vo. &: Francof. 171 1, 

 j2mo. Struv. loc. cit. jo. Fred. Hodanni DilTert. de 

 Librij legendis, Hanov. 1705, 8vo. Fr. Sacchini de 

 Ratione Libros cum profeftu Icgendi, Lipf. 171 1, 

 jimo. Baillet, Jiigcmens des S^avans fur les principaux 

 Ouvrages des Auteurs, torn. i. Car. Frid. Buddeus, de 

 Critertis boni Libri, Jen. 1714. Chr. Saalbach. Schediafma 

 de Libris veterum, Gryphis, 1705, 4to. Fabric. Bibl. Ant. 

 cap. 19. § 7. p. 607. Rcimm. Idea Syll. Antiq. Liter, 

 p. 229, feq. Gab. Putherbcus, de toUcudis ct expurgandis 



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malis Libris, Par. 1549, 8vo. Theoph. Raynaud. Erote- 

 mata de bonis ac malis Libris, Lugd. 165;, 410. Moriiof. 

 Polyhill. Liter, lib. i. cap. 16. n. 28. p. 177. Schufner, 

 Dillert. Acad, de Multitudine Librorum, Jenx, 1702, 4to. 

 Lauffer, Dilfcrt. advcrf. nimiam Librorum Multitudinem. 

 Vide Jour, des Sgavans, torn. Ixxv. p. 572. Chr. Got. 

 Schwartzius, de Ornamentis Librorum apud Veteres, Lipi. 

 170^ and 1707. Tho. Crenius, dc Libris Scriptorum op- 

 timis et utiliffimis. Lugd. Bat. 1704, 8vo. ; an extraft of 

 which is given in Aft. Erud. Lipf. an. 1 704, p. 526, & feq. 



The importation or fale of mafs-books, or other popifh 

 books, is by Hat. 3 Jac.I. c. 5. § 25. liable to a penilty of 

 forty (hillings. 



The importation of books firft printed in this kingdom, 

 and reprinted abroad, is prohibited under a penalty of 5 1. 

 and double the value of every book fo impotted and fold. 

 Vide ftat. 12 Geo. 11. c. 36. § i. 



There was a claufe in the ftatute of the Sth of queen 

 Anne, c. 19. empowering the chancellor and iome other 

 great officers of llate, to fet the price of books ; but this is 

 now repL-aled by 12 Geo. II. c. .36. § 2. 



The fole right of printing books bequeathed to the two 

 univerlities of England, the four univerfities of Scotland, 

 and the colleges of Eton, Weftminfter, and Wincheller, are 

 fccured to them by Hat. 15 Geo. III. c. 53. See Lite- 

 rary Property. 



Books, biiniliig of, was a kind of punifliment fanftioned, 

 both among tlie Greeks and Romans, by legal Icntence. At 

 Athens, the works of Protagoras were prohibited ; and all the 

 copies of them which could be collefted, were burnt by the 

 public cryer. Diogenes Laert. I. ix. 52. At Rome, the 

 writingsof Numa, which had been found in his grave, were, by 

 order of the fL-nate, condemned to the fire, becaule they were 

 contrary to the religion whicii he had introduced. Liv. 1. xl. 

 c. 29. Plin. xiii. 13. Plutarch, in vit. Numas. As the populace 

 of Rome were, in times of public calamity, more addidled 

 to fuperftition than ftemed proper to the government, an 

 order was iil'ueJ that all fuperflitious and aftrological books 

 (hould be delivered into the hands of the praetor. This 

 order was often repeated ; and the emperor Auguftus caufed 

 more than 2C,ooo of thefe books to be burned at one time. 

 Liv. 1. XXV. CI. 1. xxxix. 16. Tacit. Annal. vi. 12. 

 Sucton. l.ii. c. 31. Sometimes the care of the execution 

 of the fentence for burning books was committed to 

 triumviri appointed on purpofe ; iometimes to the praetors ; 

 and iometimes to the sediles. Labienus, whom from 

 his fatirical fpirit fome have called Rabienus, is faid to 

 have been the firll who underwent the feverity of it, under 

 the emperor Auguftus. His enemies procured ^ Jenatufcon- 

 fuhum, whereby all his books, publilhed during feveral 

 years, were ordered to be coUefted and burnt. The 

 thing, fays Seneca, (in the introduftion to the 5th, or, as 

 others reckon, the 10th book of his " Controverfise,") 

 then appeared new and ftrange to take revenge on learn, 

 ing ! " Res nova et infueta, fupphcia de lludiis fumi !" 

 Caffius Sevtrus, a friend of Labienus, hearing the fen- 

 tence pronounced, cried aloud, that they muft burn him 

 too, fince he had got all the books by heart ; " Nunc 

 me vivum uri oportet, qui illos edidici." Labienus 

 could not furvive his books ; but (hutting himfclf up in 

 the tomb of his anccftors, pined away, and was buried 

 alive. It is related as fomtwiiat lingular, that a few years 

 after, the writings of the perfon, who had been the caufe 

 of the order for burning Labienus's books, (hared the like 

 fate, and were alfo publicly burned, in a manner fome- 

 what fimilai', the works of Ben-Arias Montanus, who alTifted 

 to make the firll catalogue of prohibited books, in the Ne- 

 therlands; 



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