Myles Davies has given an opinion of the advantages of Little Books,
with some humour.
"The smallness of the size of a book was always its own commendation;
as, on the contrary, the largeness of a book is its own disadvantage, as
well as the terror of learning. In short, a big book is a scare-crow to
the head and pocket of the author, student, buyer, and seller, as well
as a harbour of ignorance; hence the inaccessible masteries of the
inexpugnable ignorance and superstition of the ancient heathens,
degenerate Jews, and of the popish scholasters and canonists,
entrenched under the frightful bulk of huge, vast, and innumerable
volumes; such as the great folio that the Jewish rabbins fancied in a
dream was given by the angel Raziel to his pupil Adam, containing all
the celestial sciences. And the volumes writ by Zoroaster, entitled The
Similitude, which is said to have taken up no more space than 1260 hides
of cattle: as also the 25,000, or, as some say, 36,000 volumes, besides
525 lesser MSS. of his. The grossness and multitude of Aristotle and
Varro's books were both a prejudice to the authors, and an hindrance to
learning, and an occasion of the greatest part of them being lost. The
largeness of Plutarch's treatises is a great cause of his being
neglected, while Longinus and Epictetus, in their pamphlet Remains, are
every one's companions. Origen's 6000 volumes (as Epiphanius will have
it) were not only the occasion of his venting more numerous errors, but
also for the most part of their perdition.--Were it not for Euclid's
Elements, Hippocrates' Aphorisms, Justinian's Institutes, and
Littleton's Tenures, in small pamphlet volumes, young mathematicians,
fresh-water physicians, civilian novices, and _les apprentices en la ley
d'Angleterre_, would be at a loss and stand, and total disencouragement.
One of the greatest advantages the _Dispensary_ has over _King Arthur_
is its pamphlet size. So Boileau's Lutrin, and his other pamphlet poems,
in respect of Perrault's and Chapelain's St. Paulin and la Pucelle.
_These_ seem to pay a deference to the reader's quick and great
understanding; _those_ to mistrust his capacity, and to confine his time
as well as his intellect."
Notwithstanding so much may be alleged in favour of books of a small
size, yet the scholars of a former age regarded them with contempt.
Scaliger, says Baillet, cavils with Drusius for the smallness of his
books; and one of the great printers of the time (Moret, the successor
of Plantin) complaining to the learned Puteanus, who was considered as
the rival of Lipsius, that his books were too small for sale, and that
purchasers turned away, frightened at their diminutive size; Puteanus
referred him to Plutarch, whose works consist of small treatises; but
the printer took fire at the comparison, and turned him out of his shop,
for his vanity at pretending that he wrote in any manner like Plutarch!
a specimen this of the politeness and reverence of the early printers
for their learned authors; Jurieu reproaches Calomiès that he is _a
great author of little books_!
At least, if a man is the author only of little books, he will escape
the sarcastic observation of Cicero on a voluminous writer--that "his
body might be burned with his writings," of which we have had several,
eminent for the worthlessness and magnitude of their labours.
It was the literary humour of a certain Mæcenas, who cheered the lustre
of his patronage with the steams of a good dinner, to place his guests
according to the size and thickness of the books they had printed. At
the head of the table sat those who had published in _folio,
foliissimo_; next the authors in _quarto_; then those in _octavo_. At
that table Blackmore would have had the precedence of Gray. Addison, who
found this anecdote in one of the Anas, has seized this idea, and
applied it with his felicity of humour in No. 529 of the Spectator.
Montaigne's Works have been called by a Cardinal, "The Breviary of
Idlers." It is therefore the book for many men. Francis Osborne has a
ludicrous image in favour of such opuscula. "Huge volumes, like the ox
roasted whole at Bartholomew fair, may proclaim plenty of labour, but
afford less of what is _delicate_, _savoury_, and _well-concocted_, than
SMALLER PIECES."
In the list of titles of minor works, which Aulus Gellius has preserved,
the lightness and beauty of such compositions are charmingly expressed.
Among these we find--a Basket of Flowers; an Embroidered Mantle; and a
Variegated Meadow.