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Before the invention of the art of printing, the only employment

by which a man of letters could make any thing by his talents,

was that of a public or private teacher, or by communicating to

other people the curious and useful knowledge which he had

acquired himself; and this is still surely a more honourable, a

more useful, and, in general, even a more profitable employment

than that other of writing for a bookseller, to which the art of

printing has given occasion. The time and study, the genius,

knowledge, and application requisite to qualify an eminent

teacher of the sciences, are at least equal to what is necessary

for the greatest practitioners in law and physic. But the usual

reward of the eminent teacher bears no proportion to that of the

lawyer or physician, because the trade of the one is crowded with

indigent people, who have been brought up to it at the public

expense; whereas those of the other two are encumbered with very

few who have not been educated at their own.