Anonymity is the refuge for all literary and journalistic rascality.  It is a practice which must be completely stopped.  Every article, even in a newspaper, should be accompanied by the name of its author; and the editor should be made strictly responsible for the accuracy of the signature.  The freedom of the press should be thus far restricted; so that when a man publicly proclaims through the far-sounding trumpet of the newspaper, he should be answerable for it, at any rate with his honor, if he has any; and if he has none, let his name neutralize the effect of his words.  And since even the most insignificant person is known in his own circle, the result of such a measure would be to put an end to two-thirds of the newspaper lies, and to restrain the audacity of many a poisonous tongue.

ON REPUTATION.

Writers may be classified as meteors, planets and fixed stars.  A meteor makes a striking effect for a moment.  You look up and cry There! and it is gone for ever.  Planets and wandering stars last a much longer time.  They often outshine the fixed stars and are confounded with them by the inexperienced; but this only because they are near.  It is not long before they must yield their place; nay, the light they give is reflected only, and the sphere of their influence is confined to their own orbit—­their contemporaries.  Their path is one of change and movement, and with the circuit of a few years their tale is told.  Fixed stars are the only ones that are constant; their position in the firmament is secure; they shine with a light of their own; their effect to-day is the same as it was yesterday, because, having no parallax, their appearance does not alter with a difference in our standpoint.  They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe.  And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth.

We have seen in the previous chapter that where a man’s merits are of a high order, it is difficult for him to win reputation, because the public is uncritical and lacks discernment.  But another and no less serious hindrance to fame comes from the envy it has to encounter.  For even in the lowest kinds of work, envy balks even the beginnings of a reputation, and never ceases to cleave to it up to the last.  How great a part is played by envy in the wicked ways of the world!  Ariosto is right in saying that the dark side of our mortal life predominates, so full it is of this evil: 

    questa assai piu oscura che serena
  Vita mortal, tutta d’invidia piena.