ABSTRACT
When a manufacture has been carried on long enough for the workmen to attain a general proficiency, the uniformity of the stuffs will render it difficult to decide on the preference of one piece beyond another; and this must be our apology for not entering into a discussion of the merits of the novel now before us, which, at the same time that it exhibits nothing to shock our feelings, affords nothing to attract particular attention, either as to materials or workmanship.1 Two of the earliest fabricators of this species of goods, the modern novel, in our country, were Daniel Defoe, and Mrs. Haywood; the success of Pamela may be said to have brought it into fashion; and the progress has not been less rapid than the extension of the use of tea, to which a novel is almost as general an attendant, as the bread and butter, especially in a morning. While we are on this subject, it is also to be noted, that nothing is more common than to find hair-powder lodged between the leaves of a novel; which evinces the corresponding attention paid to the inside as well as to the outside of a modern head. Richardson, Fielding, Smollet, and Sterne, were the Wedgwoods of their days;2 and the imitators that have since started up in the same line, exceed all power of calculation! When an art becomes general, then is the time for the invention of engines to facilitate the operations, as in the cotton manufacture. Swift’s machine for the composition of books, described in his Gulliver, like most other first attempts, has not been found to answer.3 It was reserved for us to publish a scheme for the easy multiplication of novels, cheap in its execution, and certain in its operation, so long as not only our presses, but those of Germany and France, will furnish raw materials to work up; and before they can fail, we may hope to import ample supplies from America. Here then we disinterestedly offer it pro bono publico; and expect the thanks of the whole body of frizeurs, for our assistance toward relieving them from a multitude of impatient exclamations, and profane oaths.
