Chapter Two - Men of letters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
It is always with peculiar pleasure that we take up the work of a professional man; since, from men of experience, we can generally look, with confidence and safety, for useful instruction. Theory may dazzle us for a moment with splendid visions, which vanish 'ere they fully meet the eye: but from practice we reasonably expect more substantial information.
Monthly Review, January 1796NOBLE MINDS
The October 1796 edition of the Gentleman's Magazine included an alleged letter entitled ‘Affecting Address of a Poor Student’. It was a kind of job application. Relying on the Gentleman's concern for ‘the distressed of various descriptions’, the correspondent announced that he was anxious ‘to procure a situation in life which is not of the common kind, and, therefore, not likely to be obtained by common means’. His problems, he explained, had to do with a love of reading:
From a boy … I have been particularly fond of study, and the love of books increases with increasing years. Unfortunately for me, my finances are too narrow to enable me to enjoy that learned leisure, which is peculiarly adapted to my inclinations … With a mind not uncultivated, and inclination thus ardent in pursuit of knowledge, I find myself illcalculated to undertake any servile employment in order to live. (66 (1796): 808)
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- The Crisis of Literature in the 1790sPrint Culture and the Public Sphere, pp. 76 - 132Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999