S Y L V A; OR, THE WOOD

S Y L V A; OR, THE WOOD
Being A Collection Of Anecdotes, Dissertations, Characters, Apophthegms, Original Letters, Bons Mots, And Other Little Things.
LONDON:
M.DCC.LXXVI.
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ADVERTISEMENT.
Solomon has said, that of making many books there is no end; but, as Grotius asks, "what would Solomon say now, "were he to visit our libraries ?" Seneca complained, that, "as the Romans had more than enough of all other things, so they had also of books and authorship:" and what Seneca said of declining Rome, may serve equally well for declining Britain. Look into all the departments of authorship, and you will find them crowded ; into all our collections of books, and you will find them overloaded, And, where is the matter of wonder ? it having long been the fashion to write down all we think, and to print and publish all we write. Nor for this is genius, learning, taste required : paper, pens, and ink, with (as Fielding expresses it) the manual capacity of using them, most abundantly suffice. " The art of writing," says Voltaire, " is become in many countries an infamous trade ; where illiterate booksellers pay so much a sheet for lyes and impertinence to mercenary scribblers, who have made of letters the meanest of professions.” [L'art d'ecrire est devenu en plusieurs pays un vil métier, dans lequel des libraires qui ne savent pas lire paient des mensonges & des futilités à tant la feuille à des ecrivains mercenaires qui ont fait de la literature la plus lâche des professions. -- Siècle de Louis, in Cat. Saurin.
Писательская профессия во многих странах стала низким занятием, и неграмотные книгопродавцы за лживые и пустые сочинения платят по столько-то за лист продажным писателям, сделавшим литературу самым презренным делом.] So that, as it should seem, the booksellers in reality are the capital authors of the times.
Solomon adds, that much study, or reading is a weariness of the flesh. And whatever hurt it may cause to the body, it must certainly cause no less to the mind ; by overloading the memory, and stifling all that reflection, which is necessary to make reading of any kind useful. We have indeed great and reverend authority in behalf of this copia librorum : for Chrysostom hath somewhere said, that, he, who " writeth good books, spreadeth nets for " salvation " and Cornelius a Lapide reckoneth them among the works which conduce to the glory of God, ad Dei magnificentiam. Nevertheless, what was said upon the subject by a great wit in his day, will ever be found true : dum plus hauriunt quam digerunt, ut stomachis, sic etiam ingeniis, nausea saepius nocuit quam fames [Petrarch, in Dialog.].

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Contents