The circumstance which gives authors an advantage ... is this, that they
can multiply their originals; or rather can make copies of their works,
to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals
themselves. This gives a great author something like a prospect of
eternity, but at the same time deprives him of those other advantages
which artists meet with. The artist finds greater returns in profit, as
the author in fame. What an inestimable price would a Virgil or a Homer,
a Cicero or an Aristotle bear, were their works like a statue, a
building, or a picture, to be confined only in one place, and made the
property of a single person!--J. ADDISON. _Spectator_, 166.