Montesinos.—­Happy the travellers who shall be found instrumental to such good!  One advantage belongs to authors of this description; because they contribute to the instruction of the learned, their reputation suffers no diminution by the course of time:  age rather enhances their value.  In this respect they resemble historians, to whom, indeed, their labours are in a great degree subsidiary.

Sir Thomas More.—­They have an advantage over them, my friend, in this, that rarely can they leave evil works behind them, which either from a mischievous persuasion, or a malignant purpose, may heap condemnation upon their own souls as long as such works survive them.  Even if they should manifest pernicious opinions and a wicked will, the venom is in a great degree sheathed by the vehicle in which it is administered.  And this is something; for let me tell thee, thou consumer of goose quills, that of all the Devil’s laboratories there is none in which more poison is concocted for mankind than in the inkstand!

Montesinos.—­“My withers are unwrung!”

Sir Thomas More.—­Be thankful, therefore, in life, as thou wilt in death.

A principle of compensation may be observed in literary pursuits as in other things.  Reputations that never flame continue to glimmer for centuries after those which blaze highest have gone out.  And what is of more moment, the humblest occupations are morally the safest.  Rhadamanthus never puts on his black cap to pronounce sentence upon a dictionary-maker or the compiler of a county history.

Montesinos.  I am to understand, then, that in the archangel’s balance a little book may sink the scale toward the pit; while all the tomes of Thomas Hearne and good old John Nichols will be weighed among their good works!

Sir Thomas More.—­Sport as thou wilt in allusions to allegory and fable; but bear always in thy most serious mind this truth, that men hold under an awful responsibility the talents with which they are entrusted.  Kings have not so serious an account to render as they who exercise an intellectual influence over the minds of men!

Montesinos.—­If evil works, so long as they continue to produce evil, heap up condemnation upon the authors, it is well for some of the wickedest writers that their works do not survive them.

Sir Thomas More.—­Such men, my friend, even by the most perishable of their wicked works, lay up sufficient condemnation for themselves.  The maxim that malitia supplet aetatem is rightfully admitted in human laws:  should there not then, by parity of justice, be cases where, when the secrets of the heart are seen, the intention shall be regarded rather than the act?

The greatest portion of your literature, at any given time, is ephemeral; indeed, it has ever been so since the discovery of printing; and this portion it is which is most influential, consequently that by which most good or mischief is done.