were in vogue, he was also an orator, or we still may be if admissible to public meetings, especially those in which dinner and wine precede deliberation and eloquence. Now he undertakes political essays, or even pamphlets; behold our journeyman, without any learning, human or divine, set up for an author, and many are such members of the republic of letters. Another sets out from a point somewhat more akin to learning, begins as porter’s boy in the vestibule of the muses, or to speak less figuratively, opens as _a printer’s devil_. He takes one of two courses, or both, aspires at being a compositor, or a reader. In such occupations, if tolerably sharp, he acquires a much better education than many professed men of letters; he becomes acquainted with spelling, and even receives an insight into higher parts of grammar; is tolerably correct in ordinary language. A person of this kind, if he be steady, becomes extremely useful in his own line; but should he not be steady, he has recourse to the profession of letters, offers his services to a magazine, and not for mere collections of occurrences, like the recorder of run-away horses, and boxing matches, but deals in selections, and also originals. He becomes a literary critic and a reviewer, nay, even rises to be an editor, and gradually acquires such celebrity in that occupation, that he is run upon, and perhaps distinguished by the title of Editor Atall. Somewhat higher than these in their outset, are persons who having been bred to learned professions, especially law and medicine, in which it is very difficult to get on without ability, knowledge, and skill, find things will not answer, and being unoccupied by briefs or consultations, betake themselves to the profession of letters. A man has been called to the bar, but finds that at Westminster-hall, though _many are called but few are chosen_, therefore he takes to the instruction of mankind through newspapers and magazines. A professor of medical art and science becomes a doctor of medicine, but finds his degree does not procure a demand for his prescriptions, therefore he offers his advice, not to the sick, but to those who are in health. Numerous are the recruits in the literary ranks, from counsellors and physicians, who, unable to procure clients and patients, have sought refuge in the occupation of authors. It may be naturally asked, Are not unsuccessful clergymen in the same situation? To this the answer is obvious, and indeed trite. Success, good or bad, is not in a clergyman the consequence of qualifications, good or bad, with the same probability as in the other learned professions; the recovery or defence of our property we will not trust to an insufficient lawyer; the recovery of our health we will not trust to an incapable physician; but our spiritual concerns we readily entrust, without much investigation of the competency of the guide. High fees are bestowed on the most eminent