Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/115

85 THE LONGMAN FAMILY. 85 agreement, and 50 a quarter until the work was finally out of the printer's hands. In spite of this retaining fee the proprietors appear to have been smitten with fear, perhaps dreading a repetition of Dr. Hill's inaccuracies, and sent round a specimen sheet to the eminent literati of the day, asking their opinions upon the matter and the style. All the verdicts were unfavourable, one contemptuous critic complaining that the author had twice referred favourably to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "a Scots rival publication in little esteem." Dr. Johnson cut away a large portion of his sheet as worthless ; but, at poor Calder's request, who began to be perplexedly alarmed by all these adverse reviews, explained this superfluity as arising simply from trop de zele. " I consider the residuum which I lopped away, not as the consequence of negligence or inability, but as the result of superfluous business, naturally exerted in the first article. He that does too much soon learns to do less." Then apologizing for Calder's turbulence and impatience, the kindly doctor prays " that he may stand where he stood before, and be permitted to proceed with the work with which he is engaged. Do not refuse this request, sir, to your most humble servant, Samuel Johnson." Again and again the doctor interposed his influence, but in vain, and Abraham Rees, a young professor in a dissenting college near town, was engaged, and a new issue of the Cyclopaedia (still Chambers's), in weekly parts, was commenced in 1778, running on till 1786, attaining a circulation of four or five thousand, then a large one, for each number ; and Longman, as chief proprietor, must have profited exceedingly by the work. In the books of the Stationers' Company we find