[Footnote 1: Essay ‘On the Danger of Procrastination:’
‘There’s no fooling with Life
when it is once turn’d beyond Forty.’]
* * * *
*
No. 124. Monday, July 23, 1711.
Addison.
[Greek (transliterated): Mega Biblion,
mega kakon.]
A Man who publishes his Works in a Volume, has an
infinite Advantage over one who communicates his Writings
to the World in loose Tracts and single Pieces.
We do not expect to meet with any thing in a bulky
Volume, till after some heavy Preamble, and several
Words of Course, to prepare the Reader for what follows:
Nay, Authors have established it as a kind of Rule,
that a Man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most
severe Reader makes Allowances for many Rests and Nodding-places
in a Voluminous Writer. This gave Occasion to
the famous Greek Proverb which I have chosen for my
Motto, That a great Book is a great Evil.
On the contrary, those who publish their Thoughts
in distinct Sheets, and as it were by Piece-meal,
have none of these Advantages. We must immediately
fall into our Subject, and treat every Part of it in
a lively Manner, or our Papers are thrown by as dull
and insipid: Our Matter must lie close together,
and either be wholly new in itself, or in the Turn
it receives from our Expressions. Were the Books
of our best Authors thus to be retailed to the Publick,
and every Page submitted to the Taste of forty or
fifty thousand Readers, I am afraid we should complain
of many flat Expressions, trivial Observations, beaten
Topicks, and common Thoughts, which go off very well
in the Lump. At the same Time, notwithstanding
some Papers may be made up of broken Hints and irregular
Sketches, it is often expected that every Sheet should
be a kind of Treatise, and make out in Thought what
it wants in Bulk: That a Point of Humour should
be worked up in all its Parts; and a Subject touched
upon in its most essential Articles, without the Repetitions,
Tautologies and Enlargements, that are indulged to
longer Labours. The ordinary Writers of Morality
prescribe to their Readers after the Galenick way;
their Medicines are made up in large Quantities.
An Essay-Writer must practise in the Chymical Method,
and give the Virtue of a full Draught in a few Drops.
Were all Books reduced thus to their Quintessence,
many a bulky Author would make his Appearance in a
Penny-Paper: There would be scarce such a thing
in Nature as a Folio. The Works of an Age would
be contained on a few Shelves; not to mention millions
of Volumes that would be utterly annihilated.
