with consideration, as the
confessions and statements of genius itself. In mixing them with my
own feelings, let me apply a beautiful apologue of the Hebrews--"The
clusters of grapes sent out of Babylon implore favour for the
exuberant leaves of the vine; for had there been no leaves, you had
lost the grapes."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A modern writer observes, that "Valeriano is chiefly known to
the present times by his brief but curious and interesting
work, _De Literatorum Infelicitate_, which has preserved many
anecdotes of the principal scholars of the age, not elsewhere
to be found."--ROSCOE'S _Leo X._ vol. iv. p. 175.

[2] There is also a bulky collection of this kind, entitled,
_Analecta de Calamitate Literatorum_, edited by Mencken, the
author of _Charlataneria Eruditorum_.

[3] From the Grecian _Psyche_, or the soul, the Germans have
borrowed this expressive term. They have a _Psychological
Magazine_. Some of our own recent authors have adopted the
term peculiarly adapted to the historian of the human mind.

AUTHORS BY PROFESSION.

GUTHRIE AND AMHURST--DRAKE--SMOLLETT.

A great author once surprised me by inquiring what I meant by "an
Author by Profession." He seemed offended at the supposition that I
was creating an odious distinction between authors. I was only placing
it among their calamities.

The title of AUTHOR is venerable; and in the ranks of national glory,
authors mingle with its heroes and its patriots. It is indeed by our
authors that foreigners have been taught most to esteem us; and this
remarkably appears in the expression of Gemelli, the Italian traveller
round the world, who wrote about the year 1700; for he told all Europe
that "he could find nothing amongst us but our writings to distinguish
us from the worst of barbarians." But to become an "Author by
Profession," is to have no other means of subsistence than such as are
extracted from the quill; and no one believes these to be so
precarious as they really are, until disappointed, distressed, and
thrown out of every pursuit which can maintain independence, the
noblest mind is cast into the lot of a doomed labourer.

Literature abounds with instances of "Authors by Profession"
accommodating themselves to this condition. By vile artifices of
faction and popularity their moral sense is injured, and the literary
character sits in that study which