fancied that the little knowledge in their own possession constituted the principal portion of human learning. The generosity of the English, notwithstanding the distinguishing good sense of the nation, renders them peculiarly liable to imposture. Hence arises a temptation to quacks of every kind, and numbers of that species arise that know no more of what they profess, than Drs. Solomon and Brodum know of medicine; the coal-heaving teacher of methodism knows of morality and religion; or the missionary jugglers, who pester Scotland, and endeavour to sow discord, do of the gospel of peace; or the hymn manufacturers for the Evangelical Magazine, know of sense and poetry; or Dr. Dicky Scribble of the many and every subject which he undertakes to handle. In literature, quackery is not less common than in vending either pills or methodistical exhortations. A shopkeeper or mechanic finds his craft not answer his purpose, he takes to the literary line, begins with collecting the lower branches of intelligence for newspapers, enquires whose horse ran away in Hyde Park, what chaise was damaged by a stage-coach on the road between Kentish-town and Mother Redcap’s, what drunken bricklayer fought with a drunken blacksmith near the Jews’s Harp. These articles reviewed and respelt by the editor, constitute the first step of the literary novitiate. Next he scrapes acquaintance with footmen; when grand dinners, routes, balls, or assemblies are bestowed, he attends in the halls, takes a lift of the company, and in his report informs the public, among many distinguished personages of both sexes, _we_ particularly noticed the following, &c. &c. Going from place to place, our _scholar_ may, in the course of an evening, acquire a great variety of such _learning_. This is a more advanced post, but there are higher in store; he is next promoted to be nomenclator of the persons who resort to court. He makes acquaintance with the yeomen of the guards, they, on _proper_ application, repeat to him the names; on the stairs he enlarges his acquaintance with footmen, and is able to pick up anecdotes of families; he learns who and who are together, and becomes such an adept in composition as to dress out a bit of scandal. He is able to fetch and carry for Blackball, and besides his periodical labours can venture a little in the anecdote way. Having become well acquainted with fashionable faces, he is next sent to the theatres, and by reading the newspaper criticisms becomes something of a critic himself. To extend his views of dramatic literature, he betakes himself to the Garrick’s Head, and becomes a humble listener of the players, afterwards retails their jokes as his own; there he forms his estimate of dramatic poetry, studies the dramatic censor, and becomes a theatrical critic. Perhaps now he may rise to be a parliamentary reporter, and if he do, of course he becomes a political philosopher and a statesman; and in those days when debating societies