The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 17
Captain. You are determined to proceed then in your own system? Are
you aware that an unworthy motive may be assigned for this rapid succession of publication? You will be supposed to work merely for the lucre
of gain.
Author. Supposing that I did permit the great advantages which must
be derived from success in literature, to join with other motives in inducing
me to come more frequently before the public, - that emolument is the
voluntary tax which the public pays for a certain species of literary amusement- it is extorted from no one, and paid, I presume, by those only who
can afford it, and who receive gratification in proportion to the expense.
If the capital sum which these volumes have put into circulation be a very
large one, has it contributed to my indulgence only? or can I not say to
hundreds, from honest Duncan the paper-manufacturer, to the most snivelling of the printer's devils, " Didst thou not share? Hadst thou not fifteen
pence?" I profess I think our Modern Athens much obliged to me for
having established such an extensive manufacture; and when universal
suffrage comes in fashion, I intend to stand for a seat in the House on the
interest of all the unwashed artificers connected with literature.
Captain. This would be called the language of a calico-manufacturer.
Author. Cant again, my dear son —there is lime in this sack, too -
nothing but sophistication in this world! I do say it, in spite of Adam
Smith and his followers, that a successful author is a productive labourer,
and that his works constitute as effectual a part of the public wealth, as
that which is created by any other manufacture. If a new commodity,
having an actually intrinsic and commercial value, be the result of the
operation, why are the author's bales of books to be esteemed a less profitable part of the public stock than the goods of any other manufacturer? I
speak with reference to the diffusion of the wealth arising to the public, and
the degree of industry which even such a trifling work as the present must
stimulate and reward, before the volumes leave the publisher's shop. Without me it could not exist, and to this extent I am a benefactor to the country.
As for my own emolument, it is won by my toil, and I account myself
answerable to Heaven only for the mode in which I expend it. The candid
may hope it is not all dedicated to selfish purposes; and, without much
pretensions to merit in him who disburses it, a part may "wander, heavendirected, to the poor."
Captain. Yet it is generally held base to write from the mere motives
of gain.
Author. It would be base to do so exclusively, or even to make it a principal motive for literary exertion. Nay, I will venture to say, that no work
of imagination, proceeding from the mere consideration of a certain sum
of copy-money, ever did, or ever will, succeed. So the lawyer who pleads,
the soldier who fights, the physician who prescribes, the clergyman -if
such there be-who preaches, without any zeal for his profession, or without
any sense of its dignity, and merely on account of the fee, pay, or stipend,
degrade themselves to the rank of sordid mechanics. Accordingly, in the
case of two of the learned faculties at least, their services are considered as
unappreciable, and are acknowledged, not by any exact estimate of the services rendered, but by a honorarium, or voluntary acknowledgment. But
let a client or patient make the experiment of omitting this little ceremony
of the honorarium, which is cens6 to be a thing entirely out of consideration
between them, and mark how the learned gentleman will look upon his
case. Cant set apart, it is the same thing with literary emolument. No
man of sense, in any rank of life, is, or ought to be, above accepting a just
recompense for his time, and a reasonable share of the capital which owes
its very existence to his exertions. When Czar Peter wrought in the
trenches, he took the pay of a common soldier; and nobles, statesmen, and
VoL. VII. -2 B2