that people learnt that a tragedy of Voltaire had just had a success, that some sentimental novel in the English fashion was being read by the best people, that some pungent pamphlet on philosophical or religious matters was in circulation, all of which gave them the idea of procuring them. The ease is pretty nearly the same to-day, and when we see how a book signed by an unknown name has difficulty in making its way, despite advance paragraphs and advertisements, despite the 'boom' made about it by an indulgent journalism, and how hard it is to attract public attention, we fail to understand how the ancient authors could accomplish it, lacking all these resources.
They did accomplish it, however, and not only the great writers, who have everywhere special means for dispelling the general indifference, but sometimes the commonplace and even the bad; which proves that it was not so hard as we imagine for them to make themselves known. It is worth while inquiring how they succeeded in this.
Let us take the poets. Without going so far as to say with Malherbe that they are of no more use in a State than good skittle-players, it is certain they are a luxury with which, at a pinch, we can dispense. At Rome, where the idlers were so severely condemned, no distinction was made between those who did nothing and those who did nothings, and the poets were, without hesitation, placed in the latter category.[1] It was natural, then, that the public should be rather ill=disposed to them, and by no means eager to read their verses. None the less, verses are only written to be read. Nowadays they are printed, and if they public will not buy them, they are given to the public. This method is not always satisfactory, for he who receives a book is under no obligation to open it. In antiquity the author gave a reading of it, which was a surer way, the very people who were loth to listen being forced to hear. For a rich man the thing is easy: he has only to give a dinner party. Round a well-served
- ↑ Cato confounded them with the buffoons who earn a dinner by amusing the guests, and called them indifferently spungers.
