Rev. Caleb Charles Colton 
Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those Who Think 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. There are three difficulties in authorship; – to write any thing worth the publishing – to find honest men to publish it – and to get sensible men to read it Literature has now become a game; in which the Booksellers are the Kings; the Critics, the Knaves; the Public, the Pack; and the poor Author, the mere Table, or Thing, played upon.<br><br>For the last thirty years, the public mind has had such interesting and rapid incidents to witness, and to reflect upon, and must now anticipate some that will be still more momentous, that any thing like dulness or prosing in authorship, will either nauseate, or be refused; the realities of life have pampered the public palate with a diet so stimulating, that vapidity has now become as insipid as water to a dram-drinker, or sober sense to a fanatic.<br><br>The attempts however of dulness, are constantly repeated, and as constantly fail.