under
no other obligations to do me justice than those of religion and
morality. If a man calls me rebel or bankrupt, I may prosecute and
punish him; but, if a man calls me ideot or plagiary, I have no remedy;
since, by selling him the book, I admit his privilege of judging, and
declaring his judgment, and can appeal only to other readers, if I think
myself injured.

8. In different characters we are more or less protected; to hiss a
pleader at the bar would, perhaps, be deemed illegal and punishable, but
to hiss a dramatick writer is justifiable by custom.

9. What is here said of the writer, extends itself naturally to the
purchaser of a copy, since the one seldom suffers without the other.

10. By these liberties it is obvious, that authors and proprietors may
often suffer, and sometimes unjustly: but as these liberties are
encouraged and allowed for the same reason with writing itself, for the
discovery and propagation of truth, though, like other human goods, they
have their alloys and ill consequences; yet, as their advantages
abundantly preponderate, they have never yet been abolished or
restrained.

11. Thus every book, when it falls into the hands of the reader, is
liable to be examined, confuted, censured, translated, and abridged; any
of which may destroy the credit of the author, or hinder the sale of the
book.

12. That all these liberties are allowed, and cannot be prohibited
without manifest disadvantage to the publick, may be easily proved; but
we shall confine ourselves to the liberty of making epitomes, which
gives occasion to our present inquiry.

13. That an uninterrupted prescription confers a right, will be easily
granted, especially if it appears that the prescription, pleaded in
defence of that right, might at any time have been interrupted, had it
not been always thought agreeable to reason and to justice.

14. The numberless abridgments that are to be found of all kinds of
writings, afford sufficient evidence that they were always thought
legal, for they are printed with the names of the abbreviators and
publishers, and without the least appearance of a clandestine
transaction. Many of the books, so abridged, were the properties of men
who wanted neither wealth, nor interest, nor spirit, to sue for justice,
if they had thought themselves injured. Many of these abridgments must
have been made by men whom we can least suspect of illegal practices,
for there are few books of late that are