THE PROJECTOR. N° 87. "Plus oneris quantum veniæ minus.” HOR. October 1808. THERE are few of my predecessors who have not extended their speculations to the weighty concerns of Novels and Novel Reading; and the arguments which can be advanced for or against this species of amusement have been discussed, perhaps as fully as is necessary, although not with so much success as could have been wished. Something, however, appears yet to require our consideration, by way of apology for Novel Writers, who seem to me to labour under peculiar difficulties, are more strictly under the controul of the publick than any other class of authors, and meet with less compassion and respect. The publick, indeed, seem of late disposed to thrust them out of the rank of writers, and to consider them as a species of mechanicks, working upon such materials as plots, fables, sentiments, incidents, and dialogue, and bound to perform a certain quantity of this work in a given time. If I can, therefore, by exhibiting the unfortunate case of these ladies and gentlemen "to a humane and generous publick," remove any part of that disrepute into which they have fallen, I hope they will not be loth to testify their gratitude, by dedicating the next new Novel to "Their benevolent Friend and Patron the PROJEC TOR. In the first place, then, I conceive that the hardships Novel-Writers suffer from their merciless persecutors the Reviewers and Periodical Criticks, arise, in a great measure, from the extraordinary demand there is for the article, before it can reasonably be expected to have undergone the due preparation. And here, by-the-bye, is the wonderful difference between a Novel-Writer and a Historian. The former must create every thing; or, as a mechanick would say, must not only grow the raw material, but form it afterward into the shape of heroes and heroines, incidents, plots, &c. The Historian finds all this ready made, and would undertake to execute a History of England from the time of Julius Cæsar to the Peace of Amiens, before a poor Novel-Writer could give a decent account of Sir George and Clarinda from the meeting at Brighton to the marriage in Grosve nor-square. But to return to the demand for Novels. Thirty or forty years ago, about a dozen Novels was the quantity usually published per annum; and however small this may now appear, such was the state of our boarding-schools and our circulating libraries, that it was found adequate to the consumption of the country. Neither was it expected that even the whole of this small number should be the produce of England. A certain proportion of French materials was allowed to be imported, and either manufactured into an entire piece, or incorporated with English stuff so as to produce a pleasing mixture. Still the whole number, whether imported from abroad, or the growth of our own country, were composed or compiled by individuals who lived independent, and worked at such hours, and in such humours, as were most suitable to them. In their productions, therefore, whatever other defects might be visible, there could be no pretence for crudities, or errors of haste; nor did it appear that any person's materials were exhausted by over-working. There was very little altering, botching, repairing, or disguising of old articles Q 2 to make them appear new. The writer (for he still had this title) was under no necessity to seek either amusement or bread, either fame or beef, in the regions of fiction, if he found himself otherwise disposed to employ his time; and as he seldom wrote unless when he had some small degree of inclination, his performances were generally executed in a workmanlike manner; not perhaps of the finest fabrique, but still not a servile imitation of what had been seen just before. Such were the Richardsons, Fieldings, and Smolletts of former days. years It was unfortunate, however, for NovelWriters, as well as for Novels themselves, that what it was hoped would have promoted and dignified the art, in a few tended directly to obstruct and degrade it: and here again we are forced to compare the Mechanick with the Genius, although at the expence of the latter. It sometimes happens in writing, as in other manufactures, that an increased demand is of detriment rather than of advantage to the article. The first of every invention is the best. As soon as it becomes a profitable article, it degenerates in quality: a number of slight or clumsy imitations are brought into the market; which, being sold at an inferior price, in time carry away all the profits; while the publick, instead of discouraging such trumpery, and waiting until better shall be produced, assume the singular opinion, that bad is better than none. Such has been the case with Muslins and with Novels. No sooner had the latter become a creditable and advantageous species of writing, than the usual love of variety took possession of the publick; and the demand for Novels increased so much, that in the space of fifty years above three thousand of them passed from the booksellers' to the trunkmakers' shops with astonishing rapidity; and what was more extraordinary, this love of variety became most urgent when experience shewed that the same thing only could be procured. But this was not the only evil. That the publick might be assured of a regular supply of sameness, the late Messrs. Noble of Holborn, and other Messrs. in our own times, set up regular manufactories, and built warehouses, becoming thereby a sort of Novel-Factors, the middle men between the Writer and Reader, and more intent on their own profits than on the credit and amusement of the other parties. These purveyors, commissaries, and contractors, who would order a score of Novels for the winter, as a poulterer would order a score of geese for Michaelmas, bound themselves to supply the |