Nevertheless conceive me not, I pray you, that I go about to lay a
general imputation upon all stationers. For to disparage the whole
profession were an act neither becoming an honest man to do, nor a
prudent auditory to suffer. Their mystery, as they not untruly term it,
consists of divers trades incorporated together: as printers,
book-binders, clasp-makers, booksellers, &c. And of all these be some
honest men, who to my knowledge are so grieved, being overborne by the
notorious oppressions and proceedings of the rest, that they have wished
themselves of some other calling. The printers' mystery is ingenious,
painful, and profitable: the book-binders' necessary; the clasp-makers'
useful. And indeed, the retailer of books, commonly called a bookseller,
is a trade, which, being well governed and limited within certain
bounds, might become somewhat serviceable to the rest. But as it is now,
for the most part abused, the bookseller hath not only made the printer,
the binder, and the clasp-maker a slave to him: but hath brought
authors, yea, the whole Commonwealth, and all the liberal sciences into
bondage. For he makes all professors of Art labour for his profit, at
his own price, and utters it to the Commonwealth in such fashion, and at
those rates, which please himself. Insomuch, that I wonder so
insupportable and so impertinent a thing as a mere bookseller,
considering what the profession is become now, was ever permitted to
grow up in the Commonwealth.--G. WITHER. _The Schollers Purgatory._