Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Dissertation On The Modern Art Of Scribbling.
jike never fails , if well timed , to procure a dinner . Politics is but a dru ° ' at present , though now and then a smart satire against the ministry goes clown glibly : controversies of all kinds , especially divinity , must be managed with caution and address ; sometimes the scribbler may succeed tolerably well , who answers his own treatise , as tfre celebrated De Foe was pilloried for a reply to his own book . —But I need
not insist any more on this head , as the booksellers , those jack ' alls o ' f literature , will always provide proper subjects for the author who is so happy as to be taken into pay by them . I now Come to the more mechanical instruments of scribbling ; that is , the practice necessary to be observed , after your work is done , in preparing it for the press . The bookseller , we know , must
o-etrich ; the author must eat ; and the public must be taxed for it : the only art necessary is to manage it so adroitly , as they shall easily come , into , without perceiving , the imposition . The late scandalous abuses in the printing of novels manifestly shew , that people in ge * neral only consider the bulk of the book , without examining the contentswhile they are made to pay a most exorbitant price for a mere
, trifle , infamously spun but to twice as much as the length necessary . The most . material point usually considered , is a taking- , or ( as some would read it ) a take-in Title-page . This is frequently the all in all , and worth the whole book : many a heavy piece has owed its prodig ious , sale to a lucky hit of this sort . Arid I cannot but lament the invaluable loss that the trade suffered in the immortal Curl , who had
certainly the best head for in venting a title of any man breathing ; arid always kept a collection ready by him to serve any occasion . For a work of a shorter size the Half-title , as it is called , comes in very opportunely to take up a leaf ; and I have seen many a sixpenny pamphlet swelled out to the price of a shilling by its assistance . In longer works , when you have fixed upon your Title , you must be sure to compose a tedious Preface or Advertisement to the
Reader , which may be printed in a larger type than ordinary . After this aptly enough comes the Dedication to some upstart nobleman , with or without his permission ; or , if this . fails , to the man in the moon , or any body . In this you have another help out , and—I am , my Lord , with the utmost submission and respect , your lordship ' s most obedientmost obsequiousand most humble servant—may
, ^ , when properly disposed , be spun out to near the whole length of another page , without any apparently designed expatiafiori . If your book is divided into Chapters , the Contents will here naturally follow ; and whatever they can be made to make will be clear gain , as they must again be repeated at the head of every chapter in the course of the work . And here again . you will get a great deal of
ground by setting these conspicuously in overgrown capitals , as Book III . and ' af a considerable distance underneath Chapter V . which will not only fake up a great deal of room , but be ornamental also . It above all requires the greatest dexterity to contrive that the foregoing Book or Chapter should end with about two or three lines e- « "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Dissertation On The Modern Art Of Scribbling.
jike never fails , if well timed , to procure a dinner . Politics is but a dru ° ' at present , though now and then a smart satire against the ministry goes clown glibly : controversies of all kinds , especially divinity , must be managed with caution and address ; sometimes the scribbler may succeed tolerably well , who answers his own treatise , as tfre celebrated De Foe was pilloried for a reply to his own book . —But I need
not insist any more on this head , as the booksellers , those jack ' alls o ' f literature , will always provide proper subjects for the author who is so happy as to be taken into pay by them . I now Come to the more mechanical instruments of scribbling ; that is , the practice necessary to be observed , after your work is done , in preparing it for the press . The bookseller , we know , must
o-etrich ; the author must eat ; and the public must be taxed for it : the only art necessary is to manage it so adroitly , as they shall easily come , into , without perceiving , the imposition . The late scandalous abuses in the printing of novels manifestly shew , that people in ge * neral only consider the bulk of the book , without examining the contentswhile they are made to pay a most exorbitant price for a mere
, trifle , infamously spun but to twice as much as the length necessary . The most . material point usually considered , is a taking- , or ( as some would read it ) a take-in Title-page . This is frequently the all in all , and worth the whole book : many a heavy piece has owed its prodig ious , sale to a lucky hit of this sort . Arid I cannot but lament the invaluable loss that the trade suffered in the immortal Curl , who had
certainly the best head for in venting a title of any man breathing ; arid always kept a collection ready by him to serve any occasion . For a work of a shorter size the Half-title , as it is called , comes in very opportunely to take up a leaf ; and I have seen many a sixpenny pamphlet swelled out to the price of a shilling by its assistance . In longer works , when you have fixed upon your Title , you must be sure to compose a tedious Preface or Advertisement to the
Reader , which may be printed in a larger type than ordinary . After this aptly enough comes the Dedication to some upstart nobleman , with or without his permission ; or , if this . fails , to the man in the moon , or any body . In this you have another help out , and—I am , my Lord , with the utmost submission and respect , your lordship ' s most obedientmost obsequiousand most humble servant—may
, ^ , when properly disposed , be spun out to near the whole length of another page , without any apparently designed expatiafiori . If your book is divided into Chapters , the Contents will here naturally follow ; and whatever they can be made to make will be clear gain , as they must again be repeated at the head of every chapter in the course of the work . And here again . you will get a great deal of
ground by setting these conspicuously in overgrown capitals , as Book III . and ' af a considerable distance underneath Chapter V . which will not only fake up a great deal of room , but be ornamental also . It above all requires the greatest dexterity to contrive that the foregoing Book or Chapter should end with about two or three lines e- « "