Et Pater Aeneas et avunculus excitat Hector.
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ut, whatever be the profession or trade chosen, the advantages are manyand important, compared with the state of a mere literary man, who inany degree depends on the sale of his works for the necessaries andcomforts of life. In the former a man lives in sympathy with the world,in which he lives. At least he acquires a better and quicker tact forthe knowledge of that, with which men in general can sympathize. Helearns to manage his genius more prudently and efficaciously. Hispowers and acquirements gain him likewise more real admiration; for theysurpass the legitimate expectations of others. He is something besidesan author, and is not therefore considered merely as an author. Thehearts of men are open to him, as to one of their own class; andwhether he exerts himself or not in the conversational circles ofhis acquaintance, his silence is not attributed to pride, nor hiscommunicativeness to vanity. To these advantages I will venture to adda superior chance of happiness in domestic life, were it only that it isas natural for the man to be out of the circle of his household duringthe day, as it is meritorious for the woman to remain for the most partwithin it. But this subject involves points of consideration so numerousand so delicate, and would not only permit, but require such ampledocuments from the biography of literary men, that I now merely alludeto it in transitu. When the same circumstance has occurred at verydifferent times to very different persons, all of whom have some onething in common; there is reason to suppose that such circumstance isnot merely attributable to the persons concerned, but is in some measureoccasioned by the one point in common to them all. Instead of thevehement and almost slanderous dehortation from marriage, which theMisogyne, Boccaccio [44] addresses to literary men, I would substitutethe simple advice: be not merely a man of letters! Let literature be anhonourable augmentation to your arms; but not constitute the coat, orfill the escutcheon! To objections from conscience I can of course answer in no other way,than by requesting the youthful objector (as I have already done ona former occasion) to ascertain with strict self-examination, whetherother influences may not be at work; whether spirits, “not of health,”and with whispers “not from heaven,” may not be walking in the twilightof his consciousness. Let him catalogue his scruples, and reduce them toa distinct intelligible form; let him be certain, that he has read witha docile mind and favourable dispositions the best and most fundamentalworks on the subject; that he has had both mind and heart opened to thegreat and illustrious qualities of the many renowned characters, whohad doubted like himself, and whose researches had ended in the clearconviction, that their doubts had been groundless, or at least in noproportion to the counter-weight. Happy will it be for such a man, ifamong his contemporaries elder than himself he should meet withone, who, with similar powers and feelings as acute as his own,had entertained the same scruples; had acted upon them; and who byafter-research (when the step was, alas! irretrievable, but for thatvery reason his research undeniably disinterested) had discoveredhimself to have quarrelled with received opinions only to embraceerrors, to have left the direction tracked out for him on the high roadof honourable exertion, only to deviate into a labyrinth, where when hehad wandered till his head was giddy, his best good fortune was finallyto have found his way out again, too late for prudence though not toolate for conscience or for truth! Time spent in such delay is timewon: for manhood in the meantime is advancing, and with it increase ofknowledge, strength of judgment, and above all, temperance of feelings.And even if these should effect no change, yet the delay will at leastprevent the final approval of the decision from being alloyed bythe inward censure of the rashness and vanity, by which it had beenprecipitated. It would be a sort of irreligion, and scarcely less thana libel on human nature to believe, that there is any established andreputable profession or employment, in which a man may not continue toact with honesty and honour; and doubtless there is likewise none, whichmay not at times present temptations to the contrary. But wofully willthat man find himself mistaken, who imagines that the profession ofliterature, or (to speak more plainly) the trade of authorship, besetsits members with fewer or with less insidious temptations, than theChurch, the law, or the different branches of commerce. But I havetreated sufficiently on this unpleasant subject in an early chapter ofthis volume. I will conclude the present therefore with a short extractfrom Herder, whose name I might have added to the illustrious list ofthose, who have combined the successful pursuit of the Muses, not onlywith the faithful discharge, but with the highest honours and honourableemoluments of an established profession. The translation the readerwill find in a note below [45]. “Am sorgfaeltigsten, meiden sie dieAutorschaft. Zu frueh oder unmaessig gebraucht, macht sie den Kopfwueste and das Herz leer; wenn sie auch sonst keine ueble Folgen gaebe.Ein Mensch, der nur lieset um zu druecken, lieset wahrscheinlich uebel;und wer jeden Gedanken, der ihm aufstosst, durch Feder and Presseversendet, hat sie in kurzer Zeit alle versandt, und wird bald einblosser Diener der Druckerey, ein Buchstabensetzer werden.”
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