Hudibras, showing to what distress he was at one time
reduced."

{Samuel Butler (1612-1680), another English author popularly believed
to have died in great poverty; he is best known for his long satiric
mock-epic poem, "Hudibras" (1663-1678)}

Here the sheet remained several years, until at length it chanced that
Sir John's volume of autographs was placed in the hands of a gentleman
who had recently read Mr. Lumley's MS. Life of Otway. The identity of
this letter, with that copied by Mr. Lumley, immediately suggested
itself; and now the first sparks of controversy between the Otwaysians
and the Butlerites were struck in Sir John's library.

From thence they soon spread to the four winds of heaven, falling on
combustible materials wherever they lighted on a literary head, or
collecting hands.

By the bye, the rapidity with which this collecting class has increased
of late years is really alarming; who can foresee the state of things
likely to exist in the next century, should matters go on at the same
rate? Reflect for a moment on the probable condition of distinguished
authors, lions of the loudest roar, if the number of autograph-hunters
were to increase beyond what it is at present. Is it not to be feared
that they will yet exterminate the whole race, that the great lion
literary, like the mastodon, will become extinct? Or, perhaps, by
taming him down to a mere producer of autographs, his habits will
change so entirely that he will no longer be the same animal, no longer
bear a comparison with the lion of the past. On the other hand should
the great race become extinct, what will be the fate of the family of
autograph-feeders? What a fearful state of things would ensue, even in
our day, were the supply to be reduced but a quire! The heart sickens
at the picture which would then be presented--collectors turning on
each other, waging a fierce war over every autographic scrap, making a
battle-field of every social circle. Happily, nature seems always to
keep up the balance in such matters, and it is a consoling reflection
that if the million are now consumers, so have they become producers of
autographs; it is therefore probable that the evil will work its own
remedy; and we may hope that the great writers of the next century will
be shielded in some measure by the diversion made in their favor
through the lighter troops of the lion corps.

As for the full merits of the controversy so hotly waged over the
Lumley a