[Greek: Méga biblíon méga kakón]
A man who publishes his works in a volume has an infinite advantage over
one who communicates his writings to the world in loose tracts and
single pieces. We do not expect to meet with anything in a bulky volume
till after some heavy preamble, and several words of course, to prepare
the reader for what follows: nay, authors have established it as a kind
of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes, as the most severe
reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a
voluminous writer. This gave occasion to the famous Greek proverb which
I have chosen for my motto, _That a great book is a great evil_....
An essay writer must practise in the chemical method and give the virtue
of a full draught in a few drops. Were all books reduced thus to their
quintessence, many a bulky author would make his appearance in a
penny-paper: there would be scarce such a thing in nature as a folio:
the works of an age would be contained on a few shelves, not to mention
millions of volumes that would be utterly annihilated....
When knowledge, instead of being bound up in books, and kept in
libraries and retirements, is thus obtruded upon the public; when it is
canvassed in every assembly, and exposed upon every table; I cannot
forbear reflecting upon that passage in the Proverbs, 'Wisdom crieth
without, she uttereth her voice in the streets.'--J. ADDISON.
_Spectator_, 124.