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HEPSTOW GLEANER. No. 16. I'iut Lux—" Let there be Li^ht.' Price 3d, Viae liiterary Profession . The number of books published in London, in the ranks of science and literature, averages about 1,500. p. an. It is calculated, that out of every fifteen books pub¬ lished not more than one pays its own expences. The Edinburgh Review has proved to a demon¬ stration, that only one out of every fifty pamphlets which make their appearance pays the expences of paper, print, stitching, and adver¬ tising. Only one book, on the average, out of 200, reaches a se¬ cond edition. Out of 500 books, not more than one gets to a third edition ; and out of 1000, only one has the good fortune to reach a fourth edition. The number of individuals who live in London entirely by their literary labour is supposed to be about 4,000. Of this number, perhaps about 700 are, in one way or other, connected with periodi¬ cals: many of them have no better than chameleon's fare three days out of the seven. The joke of being poor was formerly used only in reference to poets; they have always been so remarkable for po¬ verty, that the words poet and po¬ verty have almost become syno¬ nymous. Now the evil of poverty is unhappily felt by the writers of prose as well as poverty. Grub- street was formerly supposed, by a sort of poetical fiction, to be the only locality of poor authors; now a dozen Grub-streets would not contain the number, even if a do¬ zen were to vegetate in each apart¬ ment. Besides the 4000 menti¬ oned above, the number would be doubled if those who triad to live by their literary exertions, but abandoned ' the profession,' lie- cause they found they could not earn enough by it to keep body and soul together, were added to this number. There are scenes of destitution and of misery ever and anon exhibited amonglitcrary men—aye, and literary women too—which would make the heart sick. And it ought not to be for¬ gotten, that want comes armed to them with aggravated horrors. They are of necessity persons of more sensitive minds than the ma¬ jority of other sufferers from the ills of poverty; and what adds to the pungency of their distress, is the circumstance of their slighted intellectual efforts being almost invariably mixed up with their physical destitution. The literary profession is of all others the most precarious. To¬ day you maybe tolerably success¬ ful and in passibly easy circum¬ stances. To-morrow, you may bo most unfortunate, and have to en¬ counter all the horrors of want. This year you may make a hit; you may write a work which will sell: next year, your effort is a decided failure—the day your work is born is the day of its death. It is all very well for young men to apply themselves to literary pursuits as an amusement: but he who advises any young friend to make it a profession by which he is to support himself, incurs a serious and lasting responsibility. The probabilities are in the pro¬ portion of a thousand to one, that