From that time, also, it may be, the number of writers will begin to diminish; for then, it is to be hoped, men will begin to see that it is better to do the inferior thing well than the superior thing after a middling fashion.

The man who would not rather be a good shoemaker than a middling author would be no honor to the shoemakers, and can hardly be any to the authors.

I have the comfort that in this all authors will agree with me, for which of us is now able to see himself _middling_?
Honorable above all honor that authorship can give is he who can.
It was through some of his old college friends that Tom had thus easily stepped into the literary profession.

They were young men with money and friends to back them, who, having taken to literature as soon as they chipped the university shell, were already in the full swing of periodical production, when Tom, to quote two rather contradictory utterances of his mother, ruined his own prospects and made Letty's fortune by marrying her.

I can not say, however, that they had found him remunerative employment.