CHAPTER XXV.
Influence of authors on society, and of society on authors.
-- National tastes a source of literary prejudices .-- True genius always the organ of its nation .-- Master-writers preserve the distinct national character .-- Genius the organ of the state of the age .-- Causes of its suppression in a people .-- Often invented, but neglected .-- The natural gradations of genius .-- Men of genius produce their usefulness in privacy--The public mind is now the creation of the public writer .-- Politicians affect to deny this principle .-- Authors stand between the governors and the governed .-- A view of the solitary author in his study .-- They create an epoch in history .-- Influence of popular authors .-- The immortality of thought .-- The family of genius illustrated by their genealogy.

258 LITERARY MISCELLANIES.
Miscellanists 281 Prefaces 286 Style 291 Goldsmith and Johnson 294 Self-characters 295 On reading 298 On habituating ourselves to an individual pursuit 302 On novelty in literature 305 Vers de Societe 308 The genius of Moliere 310 The sensibility of Racine 325 Of Sterne 332 Hume, Robertson, and Birch 340 Of voluminous works incomplete by the deaths of the authors 350 Of domestic novelties at first condemned 355 Domesticity; or a dissertation on servants 364 Printed letters in the vernacular idiom 375 CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST.
Advertisement 383 Of the first modern assailants of the character of James I., Burnet, Bolingbroke and Pope, Harris, Macaulay, and Walpole 386 His pedantry 388 His polemical studies 389 -- how these were political 392 The Hampton Court conference 393 Of some of his writings 398 Popular superstitions of the age 400 The King's habits of life those of a man of letters 402 Of the facility and copiousness of his composition 404 Of his eloquence 405 Of his wit 406 Specimens of his humour, and observations on human life 407 Some evidences of his sagacity in the discovery of truth 410 Of his "Basilicon Doron" 413 Of his idea of a tyrant and a king 414 Advice to Prince Henry in the choice of his servants and associates 415 Describes the Revolutionists of his time 416 Of the nobility of Scotland 417 Of colonising _ib._ Of merchants 418 Regulations for the prince's manners and habits _ib._ Of his idea of the royal prerogative 421 The lawyers' idea of the same _ib._ Of his elevated conception of the kingly character 425 His design in issuing "The Book of Sports" for the Sabbath-day 426 The Sabbatarian controversy 428 The motives of his aversion to war 430 James acknowledges his dependence on the Commons; their conduct 431 Of certain scandalous chronicles 434 A picture of the age from a manuscript of the times 437 Anecdotes of the manners of the age 441 James I.discovers the disorders and discontents of a peace of more than twenty years 449 The King's private life in his occasional retirements 450 A detection of the discrepancies of opinion among the decriers of James I 451 Summary of his character 455 TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D., &c.

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In dedicating this Work to one of the most eminent literary characters of the age, I am experiencing a peculiar gratification, in which few, perhaps none, of my contemporaries can participate; for I am addressing him, whose earliest effusions attracted my regard, near half a century past; and during that awful interval of time--for fifty years is a trial of life of whatever may be good in us--you have multiplied your talents, and have never lost a virtue.
When I turn from the uninterrupted studies of your domestic solitude to our metropolitan authors, the contrast, if not encouraging, is at least extraordinary.

You are not unaware that the revolutions of Society have operated on our literature, and that new classes of readers have called forth new classes of writers.