As late as 1756 Samuel Johnson was still
writing in a Swiftian vein. In A Project for the Employment of Authors, from
the Universal Visiter (April, 1756), Johnson dons the mask of a
mild-mannered, reasonable, and plodding projector. As in Swift’s Modest Proposal,
the shock is delayed by a careful introductory survey of the problem. Writers
are extremely useful to society, but with their ever-increasing numbers, their
value declines so that “every man must be content to read his book to himself”
(Johnson, Works, V. 358). It is only when the essay is more than half completed
that proposals are made. Early in the essay the mild-mannered projector
explains that he will not discuss such formidable evils as heresy, sedition, or
hypothetical fictions produced by the “misapplication of literature,” but “some
lighter and less extensive evils” (V, 356). The essay poses the problem of the
relationship between writers and literature in a society which does not reward
their endeavors. There can be no question of the usefulness of literature:
Literature is a kind of intellectual light,
which like the light of the sun, may sometimes enable us to see what we do not
like (V, 356).
But the writer who serves literature can have
no guarantee of payment:
The condition is nearly the same of the
gatherer of honey, and the gatherer of knowledge. The bee and the author work
alike for others, and often lose the profit of their labour (V, 357).
Thus Johnson’s “gatherer(s) of knowledge,” the Grub Street
authors, have little
“sweetness and light” in their lives:
The Reviewers and Critical Reviewers, the
Remarkers and Examiners can satisfy their hunger only by devouring their
brethern. I am far from imagining that they are naturally more ravenous or
bloodthirsty than those on whom they fall with so much violence and fury; but
they are hungry, and hunger must be satisfied; and these savages, when their
bellies are full, will fawn on those whom they now bite (V, 360).
