Notes and Queries, Number 60, December 21, 1850

Оглавление

Various. Notes and Queries, Number 60, December 21, 1850

Notes

DIVISION OF INTELLECTUAL LABOUR

ON A PASSAGE IN LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST

TREATISE OF EQUIVOCATION

PARALLEL PASSAGES

Minor Notes

Queries

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES

Minor Queries

Replies

MERCENARY PREACHER

"THE OWL IS ABROAD."

OLD ST. PANCRAS CHURCH

Replies to Minor Queries

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

Notices to Correspondents

MR. MURRAY'S

PEPYS' DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE

THE LIFE AND REIGN OF CHARLES I

NEW BOOKS

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN

Отрывок из книги

Every one confesses, I believe, the correctness of the principle called "Division of labour." But if any one would form an adequate estimate of the ratio of the effect produced, in this way, to the labour which is expended, let him consult Dr. Adam Smith. I think he states, as an example, that a single labourer cannot make more than ten pins in a day; but if eight labourers are employed, and each of them performs one of the eight separate processes requisite to the formation of a pin, there will not merely be eight times the number of pins formed in a day, but nearly eighty times the number. (Not having the book by me, I cannot be certain of the exact statistics.)

If this principle is proved, then, to be of such extraordinary utility, why should it not be made serviceable in other matters besides the "beaver-like" propensity of amassing wealth and satisfying our material desires? Why should not your periodical be instrumental in transferring this invaluable principle to the labours of the intellectual world? If your correspondents were to send you abstracts or précis of the books which they read, would there not accrue a fourfold benefit? viz.:

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4. The unfair criticisms which are made, and the erroneous notions diffused by interested reviewers, would in a great measure be corrected, in the minds, at least, of your readers.

You might object that such précis would be as partial as the reviews of which the whole literary world complain. But, in the first place, these abstracts would be written by literary men who are not dependent on booksellers for their livelihood, and would not therefore be likely to write up trashy books or detract from the merit of valuable works, for the sake of the book trade. And besides, your correspondents give their articles under their signature, so that one could be openly corrected by another who had read the same work. Again, it is only the leading idea of the book which you would require, and no attendant praise or blame, neither eulogistic exordium nor useless appeals to the reader. The author, moreover, might send you the skeleton of his own book, and you would of course give this the prior place in your journal.

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