and being subject to frights
in bed, I would not willingly dream of an author.

That the number of authors is disproportionate to the maintenance, which
the publick seems willing to assign them; that there is neither praise
nor meat for all who write, is apparent from this; that, like wolves in
long winters, they are forced to prey on one another. The reviewers and
critical reviewers, the remarkers and examiners, can satisfy their
hunger only by devouring their brethren. I am far from imagining that
they are naturally more ravenous or blood-thirsty than those on whom
they fall with so much violence and fury; but they are hungry, and
hunger must be satisfied; and these savages, when their bellies are
full, will fawn on those whom they now bite.

The result of all these considerations amounts only to this, that the
number of writers must at last be lessened, but by what method this
great, design can be accomplished, is not easily discovered. It was
lately proposed, that every man who kept a dog should pay a certain tax,
which, as the contriver of ways and means very judiciously observed,
would either destroy the dogs, or bring in money. Perhaps, it might be
proper to lay some such tax upon authors, only the payment must be
lessened in proportion as the animal, upon which it is raised, is less
necessary; for many a man that would pay for his dog, will dismiss his
dedicator. Perhaps, if every one who employed or harboured an author,
was assessed a groat a year, it would sufficiently lessen the nuisance
without destroying the species.

But no great alteration is to be attempted rashly. We must consider how
the authors, which this tax shall exclude from their trade, are to be
employed. The nets used in the herring-fishery can furnish work but for
few, and not many can be employed as labourers at the foundation of the
new bridge. There must, therefore, be some other scheme formed for their
accommodation, which the present state of affairs may easily supply. It
is well known, that great efforts have been lately made to man the
fleet, and augment the army, and loud complaints are made of useful
hands forced away from their families into the service of the crown.
This offensive exertion of power may be easily avoided, by opening a few
houses for the entertainment of discarded authors, who would enter into
the service with great alacrity, as most of them are zealous friends of
every present government; many of them are men of a