Nor is there any paternal fondness which seems to savour less of
absolute instinct, and which may be so well reconciled to worldly
wisdom, as this of authors for their books. These children may most
truly be called the riches of their father, and many of them have with
true filial piety fed their parent in his old age; so that not only the
affection but the interest of the author may be highly injured by those
slanderers whose poisonous breath brings his book to an untimely end.
Lastly, the slanderer of a book is, in truth, the slanderer of the
author ... neither can any one give the names of sad stuff, horrid
nonsense, &c., to a book, without calling the author a blockhead; which,
though in a moral sense it is a preferable appellation to that of
villain, is, perhaps, rather more injurious to his worldly interest.--H.
FIELDING. _Tom Jones._