James Atkinson (surgeon)

"There is not perhaps any man so good a judge of the difficulty of writing a book, as an actual author. He soon discovers how many qualifications are necessary, how much science is required, and which are the points of most difficult access. He soon finds out his own deficiencies; and, as regards his powers, that some difficulties may be insurmountable. That essay, which sometimes originates in study and amusement, gets insensibly into growth, and is perpetuated. For, having been undertaken in the spirit of an inquirer, it is frequently carried on in the capacity of a student. This student, however, soon assumes the master, and pronounces his decisions on critical subjects, as authoritatively as if all learning and languages were at his fingers ends. ...No man’s industry is mis-spent, if he merely clear the obstruction from any path ; and the very attempt to shew what's right, frequently exposes that which is wrong; so that the immediate blunders of one person rectify those of another; and he ever must deserve well of society who attempts improvement. ...Bibliography is a dry occupation,—a caput mortuum,—it is a borrowed production, which brings very little grist to the mill; and so difficult and tedious is the object, of laying before our eyes all the real or reported copies or editions of the works enumerated, that almost every line of our reports may be suspected of falsehood. How are we to collect, how to produce, how to examine, the originals? Many books are so scarce, so sequestered in private hands, or in the mansions of the great, that even the keen eyes of lucriferous booksellers cannot find them. And if they cannot, who the deuce can?"