best editions were merely from prejudice deemed very bad editions, and the best bindings said to be inferior workmanship, for no other reason but because I sold them so cheap; and I often received letters from the country, to know if such and such articles were really as I stated them in my catalogues, and if they really were the best editions; if really in calf; and really elegantly bound; with many other reallys. Oh, my friend! I really was afraid for some years that I should be really mad with vexation. But these letters of reallys have for years happily ceased, and the public are now really and thoroughly convinced that I will not assert in my catalogues what is not really true. But imagine, if you can, what I must have felt, on hearing the very best of goods depreciated, on no other account whatever, but because they were not charged at a higher price! It is also worth observing, that there were not wanting among the booksellers, some who were mean enough to assert that all my books were bound in sheep; and many other unmanly artifices were practised; all of which so far from injuring me, as basely intended, turned to my account; for when gentlemen were brought to my shop by their friends, to purchase some trifling article, or were led into it by curiosity, they were often very much surprised to see many thousands of volumes in elegant and superb bindings. The natural conclusion was, that if I had not held forth to the public better terms than others, I should not have been so much envied and misrepresented. "To Malice, sure, I'm much oblig'd, On every side by Calumny besieg'd; Yet Envy I could almost call thee friend." not So that whether I am righteous or not, all these afflictions have worked together for my good. But, I assure you, that my temporal salvation was effected without "conditions." As every envious transaction was to me an additional spur to exertion, I am therefore not a little indebted to Messrs Envy, Detraction, and Co., for my present prosperity; though I assure you this is the only debt I am determined not to pay. Green says, "Happy the man who innocent; SPLEEN. I am, dear friend, yours. LETTER XXXIV. "Constant at shop and 'Change, his gaius were sure: His givings rare; save halfpence to the poor." DEAR FRIEND, In the first three years after I refused to give credit to any person, my business increased much, and as the whole of my profit (after paying all expenses) was laid out in books, my stock was continually enlarged, so that my catalogues in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-four were very much augmented in size. The first contained twelve thousand, and the second thirty thousand volumes: this increase was not merely in numbers, but also in value, as a very great part of these volumes was better, that is, books of a higher price. But notwithstanding the great increase of my business, I still met with many difficulties on account of my selling books cheap; one of these, I confess, I did not foresee: as the more convinced the public were of my acting strictly conformable to the plan I had adopted, the more this objection gained ground, and even to this day is not entirely done away. This difficulty was, in making private pur T chases of libraries and parcels of books, many of my customers for several years had no objection to buying of me because I sold cheap; but were not equally inclined to sell me such books as they had no use for, or libraries that were left them at the death of relations, &c. They reasoned (very plausibly, it must be confessed) thus: “Lackington sells very cheap; he therefore will not give much for what is offered him for sale. I will go to those who sell very dear; as the more they sell their books for, the more they can afford to give for them.” This mode of reasoning, however specious it seems at first, will on due reflection appear nugatory and erroneous, for the following reasons: I believe no one ever knew or heard of a covetous man that would sell his goods cheap: but every one has heard of such characters selling very dear; and when a covetous person makes a purchase, is it likely that he should offer a generous price? Is he not when buying, influenced by the same avaricious disposition as when selling? And, on the other hand, I cannot help thinking (I am aware of the inference) that one who has been constantly selling cheap for a series of years must possess some degree of generosity: that this disposition has prevailed in me when I have been called to purchase, and when libraries or parcels of books have been sent to me, thousands in the three kingdoms can witness. And, however paradoxical it may appear, I will add, that I can afford to give more for books now, than I could if I sold them much dearer. For, were I to sell them dear, I should be ten times longer in selling them; and the expenses for warehouse room, insurance from fire, together with the interest of the money lying long in a dead stock, would prevent my giving a large price when books were offered for sale. But it did not appear in this point of view to the public in the more early stages of my business, until being often sent for after other booksellers had made offers for libraries, and finding that I would give more than they had offered, it was communicated from one to another until it became publicly known: and the following method, which I adopted some years since, has put the matter beyond the shadow of a doubt: When I am called upon to purchase any library or parcel of books, either myself or my assistants carefully examine them, and if desired to fix a price, I mention at a word the utmost that I will give for them, which I always take care shall be as much as any bookseller can afford to give: but if the seller entertains any doubts respecting the price offered, and chooses to try other booksellers, he pays me five per cent. for valuing the books; and as he knows what I have valued them at, he tries among the trade, and when he finds that he cannot get any greater sum offered, on returning to me he not only receives the price I at first offered, but also a return of the five per cent. which was paid me for the valuation. But to such as fix a price on their own books I make no charge (if in, or very near town), either taking them at the price at which they are offered to me, or, if that appear too much, immediately declining the purchase. This equitable mode I have the pleasure to find has given the public the utmost satisfaction. I am, dear friend, yours. LETTER XXXV. "Behold, sir Balaam, now a man of spirit, DEAR FRIEND, SATIRE AGAINST MAN. WHEN I was first initiated into the various manœuvres practised by booksellers, I found it customary among them, (which practice still continues,) that when any books had not gone off so rapidly as expected, or so fast as to pay for keeping them in store, they would put what remained of such articles into private sales, where only booksellers are admitted, and of them only such as were invited by having a catalogue sent them. At one of these sales, I have frequently seen seventy or eighty thousand volumes sold after dinner, including books of every description, good, bad, and indifferent; by this means they were distributed through the trade. When first invited to these trade sales, I was very much surprised to learn that it was common for such as purchased remainders to destroy one half or three fourths of such books, and to charge the full publication price, or nearly that, for such as they kept on hand; and there was a kind of standing order amongst the trade, that, in case any one was known to seli articles under the publication price, such a person was to be excluded from trade sales; so blind were copyrightholders to their own interest. For a short time I cautiously complied with this |