SIR, ... we must read what the world reads at the moment. It has been
maintained that this superfoetation, this teeming of the press in modern
times, is prejudicial to good literature, because it obliges us to read
so much of what is of inferior value, in order to be in the fashion; so
that better works are neglected for want of time, because a man will
have more gratification of his vanity in conversation, from having read
modern books than from having read the best books of antiquity. But it
must be considered, that we have now more knowledge generally diffused;
all our ladies read now, which is a great extension. Modern writers are
the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light
borrowed from the ancients. Greece appears to me to be the fountain of
knowledge; Rome of elegance.--S. JOHNSON. (Boswell's _Life_.)