The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1823-11-18
MISCELLANEOUS.
LEISURE HOURS OF AN EXILE.
Concluded.
ON LITERARY MIN.

YIN LII EhAk1 MIN.
Who is the gentleman who is nothing
who possesses nothing, who does nothing Il
Formerly il was an able now il is liter
airy man."
There are always 10 society certain per
sons, who, not having the courage To take up
a trade, nor the talent 70 cultivate an art.
seek to disguise, under some decent title,
their insignihcance OF their Incidence. The
petit collet was formerly a great resource toI
such people. With few els Of black cloth
and tafety they made themselves abbes until
they were something else. Now that the IT,
tie and the dress of an able are 90 longer in
use, new denomination has become necessa
~ to distinguish the condition of so many per-
sons who have none wherefore they had fer
some tinc, the weakness 20 call themselves
philosophers This, however, imposing Ger
tain qualifications, they sought more vague
one and unluckily for literature, but luckily
for philosophy, they have assumed that Of "lt-
erary men"
This may explain the little consideration
in which this title is usually held, but does not
Justify il : : Leaving these drones. let US look
into the hives, and observe the labours Of the
bees.
Literature is at once an art and trade
Literary men are, therefore, necessarily divi-
Ided into two classes. They are, according TO
the nature of their labOurs, artists or artisans !;
aud some partake Of both qualities.
4 : / CALL in matters of literature, those per-
Isons artisans, who, deprived of the faculty Of
Invention, work upon the ideas of another !;
land their trade that material and routine la
bour in which they are engaged when their
Imemory holds the place of invention, and
their intelligence that of genius.
Z call, on the other hand, that man an ar
list who creates both his ideas and the forms
in which he expresses them. The invention
lby which he perfects those forms constitute
the art. 1t is not with this class as it is with
the academy if a man can enter it without
genius, al least he cannot be admitted without
talent
\ Ia the first class must be placed compiers,
commentators, editors, and often transators !;
in the second, inventors, whether they write
in prose or in verse.
i With respect to IFS utility to those who
profess it, the trade of man of letters is as
lgood as any other. The quantity of artisans
who are supported by it are innumerable.-
AT the head of them is the compiler, whose in
Edustry is singular, for it combines the talent
fof sconomy with the economy of talent. The
lcompiler makes books, but very differently
from an author: the latter invents sometimes
bis own words; the former does not even in
went the phrases. Using the scissors more
than the penknife for his noble labours, he
makes harlequin's coat, composed Of rags
Iof different colours and qualities, cut upon
lother cloth, and sewed together with coarse
threads. This work is, however, not without
its reward. A compiler may make fortune :
lbut-as to reputation-that is quite another
thing. know one among others who has
lgrown rich BY his trade, and yet is never spo-
ken Of Twenty clerks have been employed
lduring twenty years to unsew and sew again
books under his direction. In 1912 hundred
and seventv-five volumes had already issued
from his workshops in none of which was
There a single idea Of his own, and which had
realized to him $4,000 francs. And yet the
name of this man was not known even at the
flair of Leipsic, which he had so copiously sup
lplied. He is an iHustrious incognito, and
what is most 70 the credit of his Judgment is,
THAT he has never boasted of bis labours.
i Commentators are workmen in a differ
ent style. BY means or some notes they con
Istitute themselves the proprietors of the works
Iof Virgil, Tacitus, or Horace, and sell in the
nineteenth century, a. their own, books
which were written in the Augustan age, and
which few lines in the margins or at the bot
toms Of the page have made theirown
Editors THAT is to say, the greater part Of
those literary men who contribute to periodi-
cal works, the prudent plan of which does not
admit any original composition) secure also
quietly, and with little pains, small fortune.
These artisans work also with the wits of 9TH
ers. ] am very far from disputing their utiIi-
Ity there are many whose taste aud courage
have rendered essential services to literature.
Next to those who possess the talent of doing
well are those who teach 20 do well but, BY
a singular accident, celebrity and reward in
the path of criticism seldom awaits those who
are most useful. Taste and talent seem less
necessary TO the success Of periodical editor
than audacity, partiality, aud malignity.-I
When these succeed, nothing can be more RI
diculous than the part which their possessors
play among authors Of all kinds it is like
that which the barbarian powers played with
the Chris tan povers-pitiless with the weak.
and threatening with the strong, who TO a.
void being mauled, testify as much complai
sance towards them as certain great states
have found il expedient TO show towards the
governments Of Tunis and Algiers. They are
perfect Deys, who live in abundance and
pleasure procured by the terror they inspire.
But to leave the artisans, and speak some
what of the artist
'Trauslators form the link which unites the
two classes. They belong even to the morS
noble, when they are gifted with a genius
similar to that ofthe author whom they trans
late Style, which i theirs, is, in fact, per
feet creation. When it Is applied to ideas
which do not belong TO rs, It gives us proper
" in those ideas. This IS true OF imtators of
al kinds even OF those who do not seek in
their foreign authors the ideas which they
put forth. They ruin, therefore, whom they
borrow from; they assassinate whom they
rob- Who viii 60 10 seek in the inventor an
idea which has heen better expressed else
where and, If that idea be expressed in the
best possible manner, no person viii attempt