There are no race of people who talk about books, or perhaps, who read books, so little as literary men.--W. M. THACKERAY. A SHORT CUT TO FAME There is a sort of vanity some men have, of talking of and reading obscure and half-forgotten authors, because it passes as a matter of course, that he who quotes authors which are so little read, must be completely and thoroughly acquainted with those authors which are in every man's mouth. For instance, it is very common to quote Shakespeare; but it makes a sort of stare to quote Massinger. I have very little credit for being well acquainted with Virgil; but if I quote Silius Italicus, I may stand some chance of being reckoned a great scholar. In short, whoever wishes to strike out of the great road, and to make a short cut to fame, let him neglect Homer, and Virgil, and Horace, and Ariosto and Milton, and, instead of these, read and talk of Frascatorius, Sannazarius, Lorenzini, Pastorini, and the thirty-six primary sonneteers of Bettinelli;--let him neglect everything which the suffrage of ages has made venerable and grand, and dig out of their graves a set of decayed scribblers, whom the silent verdict of the public has fairly condemned to everlasting oblivion. If he complain of the injustice with which they have been treated, and call for a new trial with loud and importunate clamour, though I am afraid he will not make much progress in the estimation of men of sense, he will be sure to make some noise in the crowd, and to be dubbed a man of very curious and extraordinary erudition.--S. SMITH. _Moral Philosophy, Lecture IX. On the Conduct of the Understanding._ TITLE-READERS Some read to think,--these are rare; some to write,--these are common; and some read to talk,--and these form the great majority. The first page of an author not unfrequently suffices for all the purposes of this latter class: of whom it has been said, that they treat books as some do lords; they inform themselves of their _titles_, and then boast of an intimate acquaintance.--C. C. COLTON. _Lacon._ The author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.--B. DISRAELI, LORD BEACONSFIELD. THE BURNING OF DON QUIXOTE'S BOOKS