, 1872-12-15
IS LITERATURE lLL.PAID ? !.
BIZ PROFESSOR WILLIAM MATHEWS, OF TEE USTVE2-
6ITY OF CHICAGO.

61TY OF CHICAGO.
Yes will be tho prompt and indignant reply
OF nineteen out of twenty Of these who, as
Lamb says, suck their sustenance, like sick peo-
pie, through quill and they will be astonish-
cd that any one should ask tho question. Did
not Scott long ago say that literature docs well
enough as staff, but not as q cfutch,-as
dilettante pursuit, but not as means Of getting
ones bread and buster7 Have you forgotten
tho fate of Chatterton, Otway, and Sava6e7
how the "impransus" johnson struggled
through his fifty years Of poverty ?--and
what an amount Of hack-work Goldsmith
did to keep the wolf from bis door while he was
producing those exquisite poems, essays, aud
fctions, which, though they have made his
name immortal, could not keep him from dying
$4,000 in debt? Hare you never heard how
the spirituene Maginn lived and died, how
Hogg's last moments we're passed, and that he
who sang the "song Of the Shirt with 3
pathos that thrilled all Europe, died with the
sad plant that though his friends might be
able "to urn kueiy Hood" after his death, he
could not do it while living? Is not Sheridan
Knowles hand-to-hand struggle with want yet
fresh in the public memory, and do we not re-
member the three Caud1e Letters Of Lamar
Blanchard, penned in his wife's dying hours to
keep the Sheriff from his house?
Again, it literature is we'll paid in this nine
teenth century, why can it boast no profound,
encyclopaedia scholars, no great poets, ike taose
of past ages2 We have s1arms Of essayists and
feuil1etonists, magazine scribblers, who manu-
facture fiction by the hundred-weight, and more
thoughtful writer's who exhaust their mental
| wealth on reviews; but where are. our great epic
and tragic poets Where are our great lnguists =
Where is our Scaliger, our Jones, our Porson, or
our Parr7 Would the exquisite and myriad
volu1ned learning OF the second keep him,
in these iron, utilitarian times, from
starvation; or would his command Of all the
treasures OF Greek lore insure to the third any
| place or station commensurate with his merits?
Have We not seen the greatest scholars Of the
age starving in England In miserable curacios,
and in other countries in miserable professor
ships, while lawyers Of less ability have clad
themselves sin purple and fine linen" ridden
in coaches drawn by long~tailed, silky-coated
steeds, and Jared sumptuously every day?
In replying to these questions, and affirming
that literature, On the whole, is well paid,
we shall leave out Of consideration the
|. amateure who "write for glory, and
print for fun" and speak only Of the toll
ers, those who devote themselves to literature
as regular calling, means Of subsistence and
Of self-adgancement. We maintain that Pater-
noster Row il not q misnomer, foE which, On
account Of it's stepmotherly heartlessneEs, 40
rerca Row might be aptly substituted; that,
whatever provocation Campbell might have had
for saying that he forgaYe Napoleon his crimes
because he once shot q bookseller, it Is not true
that publishers drink their sherry out Of au-
| thors' skulls; that literature, far from being
necessarily associated with yexation and penury,
| is, when pursued eteadfastly and conscientious
| II, as sure mems Of support and Of ADVANCE
| ment as law, medicine, or trade.
In considering the prodtableness Of the lite
rary calling, 1t should be remembered that thoEe
is hardly any other which requires go little capi-
| tai for it's pursuit. The lawyer must have ea
Office, and. at least, an apology for . library, to
say nothing Of furniture, signs, and advertise
ments. The physician must have all these, and,
in addition, horse and carriage, besides being
veil dressed, for nobody Will trust in his skill
till by an air Of prosperity, he indicates that he
| ia trusted by others. Even the artist must have
| his studio, and steady supply Of canvas and
paint. But all the capital the writer needs is c.
fow quires Of paper, q steel pen, and five cents
worth Of ink. If he lives in city, the public
| libraries will furnish him with books; he may
travel in horse-cars, live in the fourth story Of q
cheap clearinghouse, and dress, it he pleases,
lko scare~crow, yet, if he haTe real ability,
! meet With brilliant success. But, setting aside
| these componsationB let Us see whether literary
labor during the last two or three hundred years
| has been we'll requited, To begin with the
| Father ct English Poetry" Dan Chaucer,
| though his last days were clouded by embarrass-
1nent, yet dnring most Of his life he held prof
| table Offices, and Was even employed in dip}o-
| matic negotiations. Shakespeare ne do not
| cite as proof OF our position, because, though
born wool-stap1er's SOD, he retired with large
fortune. He never published bis works, except on
the stage, and made all his money by acting and
shrewd Investments. Spenser received from
Queen Elizabeth grant of 5000 acres Of land in
| Ireland, (which, it is true, was very much like
! giving him domain in Florida inhabited by
rattlesnakes and prowling Indians; but, then,
be also received q pension OF ESQ, equal to $500
FfMaiden Queen" and transforming BY the
magic of genius her red wig into "yellow locks,
| crisped like golden wires" and though ha was
driven by Tyrones Rebellion to die in sorrow
and distress in London, yet he provoked hia
fate BY his injustice to 3 proud and savage
people as Clerk Of the Council and Sheriff Of
| Cork, and by his recommendation Of coercive
measures against them in his ''New of the
| State Of he1snd." How much money "rare
| Ben Jonson'' received, TIC do not know but it
| is probable that only his continual guzzling Of
canary wine and other intemperste habits kept
| him from becoming rich.
| In the next century We find Milton receiving
but ELS for his grand epic but We must remem-
| ber that he held an important state Office, and
enjoyed degree Of consideration not estimable
| in money. Moreover, he Was eminently unprac-
| tical, and had boundless ,scorn for those
"droesy spirits - TINT are forever seeking to
turn apenny,-that ssneedt the lure and whistle Of
earthly preferment, like those animals that fetch
and carry for morsel." Dryden, who received
81, ,2o0 for his translation Of Virgil, and who, ns
poet-laureate and stockholder in 8 theatre, had
| fixed income Of :e1, GOO year, was not iu-psid.
With brain Of such fecundity TINT he could dash
off the !" Ode on st. Cecilias Day F" at a single
JET he must have won riches Is well as honors
! but for the shrew who called him husband The
| b,,obod hocl-ad snider-fapgad dwarf Of TWlck-