What hopes, Sir, can one entertain after so shameful an answer?  I have had numerous schemes, but never could bring any to bear, but what depended solely on myself; and how little is it that a private man, with a moderate fortune, and who has many other avocations, can accomplish alone?  I flattered myself that this reign would have given new life and views to the artists and the curious.  I am disappointed:  Politics on one hand, and want of taste in those about his Majesty on the other, have prevented my expectations from being answered.

The letters you tell me of, Sir, are indeed curious, both those of Atterbury and the rest; but I cannot flatter myself that I shall be able to contribute to publication.  My press, from the narrowness of its extent, and having but one man and a boy, goes very slow; nor have I room or fortune to carry it farther.  What I have already in hand, or promised, will take me up a long time.  The London Booksellers play me all manner of tricks.  If I do not allow them ridiculous profit,(518) they will do nothing to promote the sale; and when I do, they buy up the impression, and sell it for an advanced price before my face.  This is the case of my two first volumes of Anecdotes, for which people have been made to pay half a guinea, and more than the advertised price.  In truth, the plague I have had in every shape with my own printers, engravers, the booksellers, besides my own trouble, have almost discouraged me from what I took up at first as an amusement, but which has produced very little of it.

I am sorry, upon the whole, Sir, to be forced to confess to you, that I have met with so many discouragements in virt`u and literature.  If an independent gentleman, though a private one, finds such obstacles, what must an ingenious man do, who is obliged to couple views of profit with zeal for the public?  Or, do our artists and booksellers, cheat me the more because I am a gentleman?  Whatever is the cause, I am almost as sick of the profession of editor, as of author.  If I touch upon either more, it will be more idly, though chiefly because I never can be quite idle.

(517) Now first collected.

(518) The following just and candid vindication of the London booksellers from the charge of rapacity on the score of “ridiculous profit,” is contained in a letter written by Dr. Johnson, in March, 1776, to the Rev. Dr. Wetherell:—­“It is, perhaps, not considered through how many hands a book often passes, before it comes into those of the reader; or what part of the profit each hand must retain, as a motive for transmitting it to the next, We will call our primary agent in London, Mr. Cadell, who receives our books from us, gives them room in his warehouse, and issues them on demand; by him they are sold to Mr. Dilly, a wholesale bookseller, who sends them into the country; and the last seller is the country bookseller.  Here are three profits to be paid between the printer and the reader, or, in the style of commerce, between the manufacturer and the consumer; and if any of these profits is too penuriously distributed, the process of commerce is interrupted."-E.