paper. This sometimes happens with the best authors; now and then, for
example, with Lessing in his _Dramaturgie_, and even in many of Jean
Paul's romances. As soon as the reader perceives this, let him throw
the book away; for time is precious. The truth is that when an author
begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the
reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to
say.

Writing for money and reservation of copyright are, at bottom, the
ruin of literature. No one writes anything that is worth writing,
unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject. What an
inestimable boon it would be, if in every branch of literature there
were only a few books, but those excellent! This can never happen, as
long as money is to be made by writing. It seems as though the money
lay under a curse; for every author degenerates as soon as he begins
to put pen to paper in any way for the sake of gain. The best works
of the greatest men all come from the time when they had to write for
nothing or for very little. And here, too, that Spanish proverb holds
good, which declares that honor and money are not to be found in the
same purse--_honora y provecho no caben en un saco_. The reason why
Literature is in such a bad plight nowadays is simply and solely that
people write books to make money. A man who is in want sits down
and writes a book, and the public is stupid enough to buy it. The
secondary effect of this is the ruin of language.

A great many bad writers make their whole living by that foolish
mania of the public for reading nothing but what has just been
printed,--journalists, I mean. Truly, a most appropriate name. In
plain language it is _journeymen, day-laborers_!