Possibly the authorities of the Royal
Literary Fund might be able to accomplish this grand enterprise. In
imagination we seem to see a noble building like an Oxford College, or the
Charterhouse, wherein the veterans of Literature can live and work and end
their days, free from the perplexities and difficulties to which poverty
and distress have so long accustomed them. There is a Library, rich with
the choicest works. The Historian, the Poet, the Divine, the Scientist,
can here pursue their studies, and breathe forth inspired thoughts which
the _res angusta domi_ have so long stifled. In society congenial to their
tastes, far from "the madding crowd's ignoble strife," they may succeed in
accomplishing their life's work, and their happiness would be the
happiness of the community.
If this be but a dream, it is a pleasant one. But if all book-lovers would
unite for the purpose of founding such a Literary College, it might be
possible for the dream to be realised. Then the woes of future generations
of authors might be effectually diminished, and Fatal Books have less
unhappy victims.
INDEX.
Abelard, Canon of Notre Dame.
Agrippa, Henry Cornelius, astrologer.
Alexandre, Noel, Church historian.
Anderton, William, Jacobite printer.
Aretino, Pietro, satirist.
Arlotto of Padua, historian.
Arnold of Brescia, disciple of Abelard.
Arthington, pamphleteer.
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