ER TWENTY EIGHT.

A man must serve his time to every trade,
Save censure.--Critics all are ready made.
Take hackneyed jokes from Miller, got by rote,
With just enough of learning to misquote;
A mind well skill'd to find or forge a fault,
A turn for punning--call it Attic salt:
Fear not to lie, 'twill seem a lucky hit,
Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit,
Care not for feeling,--pass your proper jest,
And stand a critic! hated, yet caress'd.
BYRON.

The survey was continued. One morning, after a fatiguing walk from
point to point, occasionally crossing from one islet to the others in
the boats, the party collected under a projecting rock, which screened
them from the rays of the vertical sun, and the repast, which had been
brought from the ship in the morning, was spread before them. The party
consisted of Captain M---; Pearce, the master; the surgeon, who had
accompanied them to explore the natural productions of the reef; and the
confidential clerk of Captain M---, a man of the name of Collier, who
had been many years in his service, and who was now employed in noting
down the angles taken with the theodolite.

Tired with the labours of the morning, Captain M--- did not rise
immediately after their meal had been despatched, but entered into
conversation with the surgeon, who was looking over the memoranda which
he had made relative to the natural history of the reef.

"Do you intend to write a book, Mr Macallan, that you have collected so
many remarks?"

"Indeed I do not, sir. I have no ambition to be an author."

The clerk, who was very taciturn in general, and seldom spoke unless on
points connected with his duty, joined the conversation by addressing
the surgeon.

"It's a service of danger, sir, and you must be prepared to meet the
attacks both of authors and reviewers."

"Of reviewers I can imagine," replied Macallan; "but why of authors?"

"That depends very much whether you tread over beaten ground, or strike
into a new path. In the latter case you will be pretty safe from both,
as the authors will be _indifferent_ and the reviewers, in all
probability, _incapable_."

"And why, if I enter upon a beaten track, which, I presume, infers a
style of writing in which others have preceded me?"

"Because, sir, when a new author makes his appearance, he is much in the
same situation as a strange dog entering a kennel preoccupied by many
others. He is immediately attack