of him who has been thrown out in the more vulgar scramble for the good things of this life; and such stories are therefore fondly repeated and remembered. But, although good enough as stories, they are worth little as arguments; seeing that there is not one of them that might not be easily matched by another that would tell, if not as pathetically, yet just as forcibly, on the opposite side of the question. Upon this view of the matter, however, we have no inclination to dwell; for it is not chiefly on the strength of such considerations that we would recommend the pursuit of knowledge. It is profitable to a far higher end than the mere advancement of its votaries in worldly wealth; although in that, too, it is an ally and not an adversary. And as for the great scholar, the calamities of whose latter days we have just recorded, the generally unfortunate destiny of the learned is not the lesson to be drawn from his history. His family had risen by their learning, had through that acquired both wealth and distinction, and owed to nothing else the station they long held at the very head of their profession in Europe and in the world. Even he himself had flourished by the same means, in affluence and in honour, for many years; and if one of his undertakings at last turned out unsuccessful, partly through the unfair conduct of another, and partly, let it be allowed, from the nature of the speculation itself, into which a mere printer, who cared for nothing but his money, would not perhaps have so rashly adventured, it was, after all, but one instance of the evils of learning among many illustrations of its advantages. And in this reasoning, we throw out of view the glory of the otherwise unprofitable enterprise, the feeling of triumph in its achievement, which all it had cost could not take away, and the anticipation of that

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award of posterity on the finished work, which the knowledge of the ruin it had brought on its illustrious projector, would only make more generous.

To the Manutii and the Stephenses we might add the names of many other learned printers of those early times; for example, that of Simon de Colines (in Latin, COLINEUS,) who after having been in partnership with the first Henry Stephens, the grandfather of the author of the Thesaurus, married his widow, and carried on the business, and who was profoundly versed in ancient literature-that of BADIUS (often called Ascentius, from Asche, near Brussels, the place of his nativity,) also a Parisian printer, who was the author of several learned works, and whose daughter, Petronilla, the wife of Robert, and the mother of the great Henry Stephens, was so erudite a lady that she is said to have taught both her children and her servants Latin, and to have permitted no other language to be spoken in the familythat of FROBEN, who established his press at Basil in Switzerland, and was so highly esteemed by Erasmus for his great learning, that this celebrated person was induced to take up his residence there in order to have his works printed by so able a scholar-and that of OPORINUS, the successor of Froben in the same city, many of the works published by whom, beside being remarkable for their correctness, are illustrated by his own prefaces and notes.

Of names belonging to later times and to our own country, one of the most distinguished is that of the very learned THOMAS RUDDIMAN, who carried on a considerable business in Edinburgh, during the early part of last century. The editions of the classical authors that issued from his press were in general printed with very great accuracy, and often exhibited new readings and amendments of punctuation, in the highest degree creditable to the ingenuity and eru

dition of the editor; who found leisure for the preparation of several works of his own, among which may be particularly mentioned a Latin grammar in two volumes, one of the most learned and elaborate performances in the whole range of philology. A new edition of this grammar has within these few years been published in Germany, under the superintendence of one of the most eminent scholars of that country. Ruddiman held at the same time the office of librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh (in which he was succeeded by the celebrated David Hume) and was also the publisher of a newspaper, which he had established himself, and which still exists. Among recent English printers, the wellknown WILLIAM BOWYER long presented a conspicuous example of that accomplished scholarship united to the most diligent habits of business, which used to be so common in the good old times of the art. Nor ought we to forget his partner and successor, the late Mr. JOHN NICHOLS, whose antiquarian knowledge, and extensive labours in different departments of literature, justly entitle him to a high place among the modern ornaments of his profession.

The father of RICHARDSON, the great novelist, was a joiner; and he himself, after having been taught reading and writing at a country school, was bound apprentice to a London printer, named Wilde, with whom he served for the usual period. Soon after his apprenticeship had expired, he found employment as foreman in a printing office; but in this situation he remained for five or six years with scarcely a hope of any higher advancement. By the assistance of several friends, however, whom his industry, intelligence, and amiable manners had secured for him, he was at last enabled to enter into business on his own account; when, having established himself in a court in Fleet Street, his success speedily began to justify the

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expectations that had been entertained of him. Meanwhile his literary tastes and even some indications he had given of his talents as a writer, had become known among his acquaintance, and he was ployed on various occasions by the booksellers, in the composition of prefaces and dedications for works. which they were bringing out. At last they proposed to him the writing of a volume of Familiar Letters;› and it was this circumstance, we are told, which suggested the idea of his Pamela, 'the first production by which he obtained any distinction as an author. was already in his fifty-second year when he commenced the composition of this work. And yet such was the eagerness with which he applied himself to it, that he finished the first part of it, consisting of two volumes, in as many months. It met, as is well known, with the most extraordinary success, having gone through five editions in the course of a year. The author, however, was not left to enjoy his popularity undisturbed; for, not to mention a good deal of severe criticism to which the conduct and moral tendency of the novel were subjected, the manner of the author was attacked with powerful ridicule by the celebrated Fielding in his Joseph Andrews.' The effect of this satire was so keenly felt by Richardson, that he determined to show the world that he could write as well in another. style, in proof of which he produced a continuation of the work under the title of Pamela in High Life,' which did not meet with much success. He was not discouraged, however, by this failure, but only instructed by it in the true path in which he was fitted to excel. He returned to his studies, and after some years appeared again as an author by the publication of the two first volumes of his greatest work, his Clarissa Harlowe.' The success of this production was immense. Appearing as

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it did in parts, it excited the public curiosity in the highest degree. During the progress of its publication, and when it was translated into French, it raised its author in the estimation of continental critics to the first rank among the writers of the age. Richardson was in his sixtieth year when he gave this work to the world; but he had not yet concluded his literary career. Four years afterwards he appeared again before the public with another performance, his 'Sir Charles Grandison.' This novel (like its immediate predecessor) extends to the unusual length of seven volumes; and it has been asserted that the author's original manuscript, had it not been subsequently curtailed, would have made a book of three times the size. We do not mention this as a proof of the industry of the writer. Prolixity was the besetting fault of Richardson; his works would have cost him more time and labour had he made them shorter. With his fulness of matter, and facility of invention, it was comparatively easy for him to spread his story over any number of pages. What he most wanted was the art of rejection. Richardson is undoubtedly one of the very greatest of our writers in the department to which his works belong; but on the continent he is very generally considered as standing at the head of his whole class, without a rival. It may be that he has some qualities which give him a claim to this pre-eminence; but his works, in their original language, are too defective to permit us to rate him quite so high. Perhaps some of their faults do not appear so strongly under the disguise of translation; and among those most likely to be thus softened, we should especially reckon the general inelegance and extreme slovenliness of the style. This is a fault which the author, in all probability, could have materially corrected, had he taken the requisite pains.