An Oxford scholar discovered recently that “high art and low art were packaged, sold and read together in the 18th Century”. Indeed, it turns out that the secret of success for the poetry collection, “The Works of the Earls of Rochester and Roscommon“, was hidden in the very last chapter of its second volume.

The existence of this pornographic addendum, entitled “The Cabinet of Love”, and tucked in at the back of the book was essentially spread by word of mouth.

The “Works…” was reprinted more than 20 times in the 18th Century. Eat your heart out James Stewart.

I guess Sex sells in any century. Now can anyone tell me why this story appears in PHYSORG.com, “a web-based science, research and technology news service which covers physics, earth science, medicine, nanotechnology, electronics, space, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and other sciences and technologies”? Unless nanotechnology was used to find the hidden addendum.

What about if PHYSORG.com also wanted to use Sex to sell? I will let you know tomorrow if this works once I see the number of hits for this post.