But if envy, dishonesty and the pursuit of personal aims are
added to the incapacity of those hundred persons who, in the name of
their generation, are called upon to pass judgment on a work, then
indeed it meets with the same sad fate as attends a suitor who pleads
before a tribunal of judges one and all corrupt.
In corroboration of this, we find that the history of literature
generally shows all those who made knowledge and insight their goal
to have remained unrecognized and neglected, whilst those who
paraded with the vain show of it received the admiration of their
contemporaries, together with the emoluments.
The effectiveness of an author turns chiefly upon his getting the
reputation that he should be read. But by practicing various arts,
by the operation of chance, and by certain natural affinities, this
reputation is quickly won by a hundred worthless people: while a
worthy writer may come by it very slowly and tardily. The former
possess friends to help them; for the rabble is always a numerous body
which holds well together. The latter has nothing but enemies; because
intellectual superiority is everywhere and under all circumstances the
most hateful thing in the world, and especially to bunglers in the
same line of work, who want to pass for something themselves.
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