"
In these days of omnivorous readers, the position of authors has decidedly
improved. We no longer see the half-starved poets bartering their sonnets
for a meal; learned scholars pining in Newgate; nor is "half the pay of a
scavenger" [Footnote: A remark of Granger--vide _Calamities of Authors_,
p. 85.] considered sufficient remuneration for recondite treatises. It has
been the fashion of authors of all ages to complain bitterly of their own
times. Bayle calls it an epidemical disease in the republic of letters,
and poets seem especially liable to this complaint. Usually those who are
most favoured by fortune bewail their fate with vehemence; while poor and
unfortunate authors write cheerfully. To judge from his writings one would
imagine that Balzac pined in poverty; whereas he was living in the
greatest luxury, surrounded by friends who enjoyed his hospitality.
Oftentimes this language of complaint is a sign of the ingratitude of
authors towards their age, rather than a testimony of the ingratitude of
the age towards authors. Thus did the French poet Pays abuse his fate: "I
was born under a certain star, whose malignity cannot be overcome; and I
am so persuaded of the power of this malevolent star, that I accuse it of
all misfortunes, and I never lay the fault upon anybody." He has courted
Fortune in vain. She will have nought to do with his addresses, and it
would be just as foolish to afflict oneself because of an eclipse of the
sun or moon, as to be grieved on account of the changes which Fortune is
pleased to cause.
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