One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

Tennyson

Reduced Leaf in original, 7 × 10 inches

O moral Gower

Chaucer

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.68 × 12.75 inches.

Flos regum Arthurus

John of Exeter

After that I had accomplysshed and fynysshed dyuers hystoryes as wel of contemplacyon as of other hystoryal and worldly actes of grete conquerours & prynces / And also certeyn bookes of ensaumples and doctryne / Many noble and dyuers gentylmen of thys royame of Englond camen and demaunded me many and oftymes / wherfore that j haue not do made & enprynte the noble hystorye of the saynt greal / and of the moost renomed crysten kyng / Fyrst and chyef of the thre best crysten and worthy / kyng Arthur / whyche ought moost to be remembred emonge vs englysshe men tofore al other crysten kynges / For it is notoyrly knowen thorugh the vnyuersal world / that there been ix worthy & the best that euer were / That is to wete thre paynyms / thre jewes and thre crysten men / As for the paynyms they were tofore the jncarnacyon of Cryst / whiche were named / the fyrst Hector of Troye / of whome thystorye is comen bothe in balade and in prose / The second Alysaunder the grete / & the thyrd Julyus Cezar Emperour of Rome of whome thystoryes ben wel kno and had / And as for the thre jewes whyche also were tofore thyncarnacyon of our lord of whome the fyrst was Duc Josue whyche brought the chyldren of Israhel in to the londe of byheste / The second Dauyd kyng of Jherusalem / & the thyrd Judas Machabeus of these thre the byble reherceth al theyr noble hystoryes & actes / And sythe the sayd jncarnacyon haue ben thre noble crysten men stalled and admytted thorugh the vnyuersal world in to the nombre of the ix beste & worthy / of whome was fyrst the noble Arthur / whos noble actes j purpose to wryte in thys present book here folowyng / The second was Charlemayn or Charles the grete / of whome thystorye is had in many places bothe in frensshe and englysshe / and the thyrd and last was Godefray of boloyn / of whos actes & lyf j made a book vnto thexcellent prynce and kyng of noble memorye kyng Edward the fourth / the sayd noble jentylmen jnstantly requyred me temprynte thystorye of the sayd noble kyng and conquerour kyng Arthur / and of his knyghtes wyth thystorye of the saynt greal / and of the deth and endyng of the sayd Arthur / Affermyng that j ouzt rather tenprynte his actes and noble feates / than of godefroye of boloyne / or

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.87 × 11.25 inches.

So judiciously contrived that the wisest may exercise at once their knowledge and devotion; its ceremonies few and innocent; its language significant and perspicuous; most of the words and phrases being taken out of the Holy Scriptures and the rest are the expressions of the first and purest ages.

Comber

T H E

booke of the common praier

and administracion of the

Sacramentes, and

other rites and

ceremonies

of the

Churche: after the

vse of the Churche of

Englande.

LONDINI, in officina Richardi Graftoni,

Regij impressoris.

Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.

Anno Domini. M.D.XLIX.

Mense Martij.

Reduced Leaf in original 7 × 10.5 inches.

The author of Piers Ploughman, no doubt, embodied in a poetic dress just what millions felt. His poem as truly expressed the popular sentiment on the subjects it discussed as did the American Declaration of Independence the national thought and feeling on the relations between the Colonies and Great Britain. Its dialect, its tone and its poetic dress alike conspired to secure to the Vision a wide circulation among the commonalty of the realm, and by formulating—to use a favorite word of the day—sentiments almost universally felt, though but dimly apprehended, it brought them into distinct consciousness, and thus prepared the English people for the reception of the seed which the labors of Wycliffe and his converts were already sowing among them.

Marsh

THE VISION

of Pierce Plowman, now

fyrste imprynted by Roberte

Crowley, dwellyng in Ely

tentes in Holburne.

Anno Domini.

1550.

Cum priuilegio ad imprimendū

solum.

By far the most important of our historical records, in print, during the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Dibdin

1577.

T H E

Firste volume of the

Chronicles of England, Scotlande,

and Irelande.

CONTEYNING,

The description and Chronicles of England, from the first inhabiting vnto the conquest

The description and Chronicles of Scotland, from the first originall of the Scottes nation, till the yeare of our Lorde. 1571.

The description and Chronicles of Yrelande, likewise from the firste originall of that Nation, vntill the yeare. 1547.

Faithfully gathered and set forth, by

Raphaell Holinshed.

AT LONDON,

Imprinted for George Bishop.

God saue the Queene.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.75 11.12 inches

Our historic plays are allowed to have been founded on the heroic narratives in the Mirror for Magistrates; to that plan, and to the boldness of Lord Buckhurst's new scenes, perhaps we owe Shakespeare.

Walpole

¶A MYRROVR FOR

Magistrates.

Wherein maye be seen by

example of other, with howe greuous

plages vices are punished: and

howe frayle and vnstable werldly

prosperity is founde, even of

those whom Fortune seemeth

most highly

to fauour.

Fælix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.

Anno. 1 5 6 3.

¶Imprinted at London in Fletestrete

nere to Saynct Dunstans Churche

by Thomas Marshe.

Two chieftaines who having travailed into Italie, and there tasted the sweete and stately measures and stile of Italian Poesie, as novices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante, Arioste, and Petrarch, they greatly pollished our rude and homely maner of vulgar Poesie, from that it had bene before, and for that cause may justly be sayd the first reformers of our English meetre and stile.

Puttenham

¶SONGES AND SONETTES

Written by the right honorable

Lord Henry Haward late

Earle of Surrey, and

others.

Apud Richardum Tottell.

1567.

Cumpriuilegio.

It is full of stately speeches, and well-sounding phrases, clyming to the height of Seneca his stile, and as full of notable moralitie, which it doth most delightfully teach, and so obtayne the very end of Poesie.

Sidney

¶The Tragidie of Ferrex

and Porrex,

set forth without addition or alteration

but altogether as the same was shewed

on stage before the Queenes Maiestie,

about nine yeares past, vz. the

xviij. day of Ianuarie. 1561.

by the gentlemen of the

Inner Temple.

Seen and allowed, &c.

Imprinted at London by

Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer

Aldersgate.

These papers of his lay like dead lawrels in a churchyard; but I have gathered the scattered branches up, and by a charme, gotten from Apollo, made them greene againe and set them up as epitaphes to his memory. A sinne it were to suffer these rare monuments of wit to lye covered in dust and a shame such conceipted comedies should be acted by none but wormes. Oblivion shall not so trample on a sonne of the Muses; and such a sonne as they called their darling. Our nation are in his debt for a new English which he taught them. "Euphues and his England" began first that language: all our ladyes were then his scollers; and that beautie in court, which could not parley Eupheueisme was as little regarded as shee which now there speakes not French.

Blount

EVPHVES.

THE ANATOMY

of Wit.

Verie pleasant for all

Gentlemen to reade,

and most necessary to

remember.

Wherein are contayned the

delightes that wit followeth in

his youth, by the pleasantnesse of loue,

and the happinesse he reapeth

in age, by the perfectnes

of wisedome.

By Iohn Lylie, Maister of Art.

Corrected and augmented.

AT L O N D O N

Printed for Gabriell Cawood,

dwelling in Paules Church-yard.

The noble and vertuous gentleman most worthy of all titles both of learning and chevalrie M. Philip Sidney.

Spenser

THE

COVNTESSE

OF PEMBROKES

ARCADIA,

WRITTEN BY SIR PHILIPPE

SIDNEI.

(Illustration)

LONDON

Printed for William Ponsonbie.

Anno Domini, 1590.

Our sage and serious poet Spenser (whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas).

Milton

THE FAERIE

QVEENE.

Disposed into twelue books,

Fashioning

XII. Morall vertues.

(Illustration)

LONDON

Printed for William Ponsonbie.

1 5 9 0.

Who is there that upon hearing the name of Lord Bacon does not instantly recognize everything of literature the most extensive, everything of discovery the most penetrating, everything of observation of human life the most distinguished and refined?

Burke

Essaies.

Religious Meditations.

Places of perswasion

and disswasion.

Seene and allowed.

(Illustration)

L o n d o n

Printed for Humfrey Hooper

and are to bee solde at the

blacke Beare in Chauncery

lane. 1598.

They contain the heroic tales of the exploits of the great men in whom the new era was inaugurated; not mythic like the Iliads and the Eddas, but plain, broad narratives of substantial facts, which rival legend in interest and grandeur. What the old epics were to the royally or nobly born, this modern epic is to the common people. We have no longer kings or princes for chief actors to whom the heroism, like the dominion of the world, had in time past been confined. But, as it was in the days of the Apostles, when a few poor fishermen from an obscure lake in Palestine assumed, under the Divine Mission, the spiritual authority over mankind, so, in the days of our own Elizabeth, the seamen from the banks of the Thames and the Avon, the Plym and the Dart, self-taught and self-directed, with no impulse but what was beating in their own royal hearts, went out across the unknown seas, fighting, discovering, colonizing, and graved out the channels, paving them at last with their bones, through which the commerce and enterprise of England has flowed out over all the world.

Froude

THE

PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS,

VOIAGES,

TRAFFIQVES AND DISCOueries

of the English Nation, made by Sea

or ouer-land, to the remote and farthest distant

quarters of the Earth, at any time within

the compasse of these 1500. yeeres: Deuided

into three seuerall Volumes, according to the

positions of the Regions, whereonto

they were directed.

This first Volume containing the woorthy Discoueries,

&c. of the English toward the North and Northeast by Sea,

as of Lapland, Scriksinia, Corelia, the Baie of S. Nicholas, the Isles of Colgoieue,

Vaigatz, and Noua Zembla, toward the great riuer Ob,

with the mighty Empire of Russia, the Caspian sea, Georgia,

Armenia, Media, Persia, Boghar in Bactria,

and diuers kingdoms of Tartaria:

Together with many notable monuments and testimonies

of the ancient forren trades, and of the warrelike and

other shipping of this realme of England in former ages.

Whereunto is annexed also a briefe Commentarie of the true

state of Island, and of the Northren Seas and

lands situate that way.

And lastly, the memorable defeate of the Spanish huge

Armada, Anno 1588. and the famous victorie

atchieued at the citie of Cadiz, 1596.

are described.

By Richard Hacklvyt Master of

Artes, and sometime Student of Christ-Church

in Oxford.

(Illustration)

Imprinted at London by George

Bishop, Ralph Newberie

and Robert Barker.

1 5 9 8.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7 × 10.87 inches.

Keats

Mulciber in Troiam, pro Troia stabat Apollo.

HOMER

THE

WHOLE WORKS

OF

HOMER;

PRINCE OF POETTS

In his Iliads, and

Odysses.

Translated according to the Greeke,

By

Geo: Chapman.

De Ili: et Odiss:

Omnia ab his: et in his sunt omnia:

siue beati

Te decor eloquij, seu rerū pondera

tangunt.

Angel Pol:

At London printed for Nathaniell Butter.

William Hole Sculp:

Qui Nil molitur

Ineptè

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.06 x 10.93 inches.

Scott

THE

HOLY

BIBLE,

Conteyning the Old Testament,

and the New:

¶Newly translated out of

the Originall Tongues: and with

the former Translations diligently

compared and reuised by his

Maiesties speciall Commandement,

¶Appointed to be read in Churches.

¶IMPRINTED

at London by Robert

Barker, Printer to the

Kings most excellent

Maiestie.

Anno Dom. 1611.

Reduced Leaf in original 9.37 x 13.25 inches

O rare Ben Jonson

Epitaph

THE

WORKES

of

Beniamin Jonson

—neque, me vt miretur turba

laboro:

Contentus paucis lectoribus.

Imprinted at

London, by

Will Stansby

An. D. 1616.

Reduced Leaf in original, 5 × 7.62 inches.

Scarce any book of philology in our land hath in so short a time passed so many impressions.

Fuller

THE

ANATOMY OF

MELANCHOLY,

WHAT IT IS.

WITH ALL THE KINDES,

CAVSES, SYMPTOMES, PROGNOSTICKES,

AND SEVERALL

CVRES OF IT.

IN THREE MAINE PARTITIONS

with their seuerall Sections, Members,

and Svbsections.

PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICINALLY,

HISTORICALLY, OPENED

AND CVT VP.

BY

Democritvs Iunior.

With a Satyricall Preface, conducing to

the following Discourse.

Macrob.

Omne meum, Nihil meum.

AT OXFORD,

Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames

Short, for Henry Cripps.

Anno Dom. 1621.

He was not of an age, but for all time!

Jonson

M^R. WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARES

COMEDIES,

HISTORIES, &

TRAGEDIES.

Published according to the True Originall Copies.

(Illustration)

Martin Droahout sculpsit London

L O N D O N

Printed by Isaac Jaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623.

Reduced Leaf in original 8.56 x 13.25 inches

This most tragic of all tragedies save King Lear.

Swinburne

THE

T R A G E D Y

OF THE DUTCHESSE

OF Malfy.

As it was Presented priuatly, at the Black-Friers;

and publiquely at the Globe, By the

Kings Maiesties Seruants.

The perfect and exact Coppy, with diuerse

things Printed, that the length of the Play would

not beare in the Presentment.

Written by John Webster.

Hora.——Si quid——

——Candidus Imperti si non bis vtere mecum.

LONDON:

Printed by Nicholas Okes, for Iohn

Waterson, and are to be sold at the

signe of the Crowne, in Paules

Church-yard, 1 6 2 3.

To me Massinger is one of the most interesting as well as one of the most delightful of the old dramatists, not so much for his passion or power, though at times he reaches both, as for the love he shows for those things that are lovely and of good report in human nature, for his sympathy with what is generous and high-minded and honorable and for his equable flow of a good every-day kind of poetry, with few rapids or cataracts, but singularly soothing and companionable.

Lowell

A NEW WAY TO PAY

OLD DEBTS

A COMŒDIE

As it hath beene often acted at the Phœnix

in Drury-Lane, by the Queenes

Maiesties seruants.

The Author.

PHILIP MASSINGER.

(illustration)

L O N D O N,

Printed by E. P. for Henry Seyle, dwelling in S.

Pauls Church-yard, at the signe of the

Tygers head. Anno. M. DC.

X X X I I I.

Ford was of the first order of poets. He sought for sublimity, not by parcels in metaphors or visible images, but directly where she has her full residence in the heart of man; in the actions and sufferings of the greatest minds. There is a grandeur of the soul above mountains, seas, and the elements. Even in the poor perverted reason of Giovanni and Annabella we discover traces of that fiery particle, which in the irregular starting from out of the road of beaten action, discovers something of a right line even in obliquity, and shows hints of an improvable greatness in the lowest descents and degradation of our nature.

Lamb

THE

B R O K E N

HEART.

A Tragedy.

A C T E D

By the Kings Majesties Seruants

at the priuate House in the

Black-Friers.

Fide Honor.

(Illustration)

LONDON:

Printed by I. B. for Hvgh Beeston, and are to

be sold at his Shop, neere the Castle in

Corne-hill. 1 6 3 3.

Drayton

The Famous

T R A G E D Y

OF

THE RICH JEW

OF MALTA.

AS IT WAS PLAYD

BEFORE THE KING AND

Qveene, IN HIS MAJESTIES

Theatre at White-Hall, by her Majesties

Servants at the Cock-pit.

Written by Christopher Marlo.

(Illustration)

LONDON,

Printed by I. B. for Nicholas Vavasour, and are to be sold

at his Shop in the Inner-Temple, neere the

Church. 1 6 3 3.

Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother Farrar, and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I would subject mine to the will of Jesus, my Master, in Whose service I have now found perfect freedom. Desire him to read it; and then, if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul, let it be made public; if not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies.

Herbert

THE

T E M P L E.

SACRED POEMS

AND

PRIVATE EJACULATIONS.

By M^r. George Herbert.

Psal. 29.

In his Temple doth every

man speak of his honour.

(Ilustration)

CAMBRIDGE

Printed by Thom. Buck,

and Roger Daniel, printers

to the Universitie.

1 6 3 3.

Walton

P O E M S,

by J. D.

WITH

E L E G I E S

ON THE AUTHORS

DEATH.

LONDON.

Printed by M. F. for Iohn Marriot,

and are to be sold at his shop in S^t Dunstans

Church-yard in Fleet-street. 1 6 3 3.

It is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity; of which he will not easily be deprived while learning shall have any reverence among men; for there is no science in which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success.

Johnson

à coelo salus

Religio,

Medici.

Printed for Andrew Crooke. 1642. Will Marshatt. scu.

Waller was smooth.

Pope

THE

W O R K E S

OF

EDMOND WALLER

Esquire,

Lately a Member of the Honourable

House of

Commons,

In this present Parliament.

Imprimatur

Na. Brent. Decem. 30. 1644.

LONDON,

Printed for Thomas Walkley.

1645.

Herrick

COMEDIES

AND

TRAGEDIES

FRANCIS BEAVMONT

Written by—And—Gentlemen.

IOHN FLETCHER

Never printed before,

And now published by the Authours

Originall Copies.

Si quid habent veri Vatum præsagia, vivam.

LONDON,

Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the three Pidgeons, and for

Humphrey Moseley at the Princes Armes in S^t Pauls

Church-yard. 1 6 4 7.

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.37 x 13.12 inches

Aldrich

HESPERIDES:

OR,

THE WORKS

BOTH

HUMANE & DIVINE

OF

Robert Herrick Esq.

Ovid.

Effugient avidos Carmina nostra Rogos.

(Illustration)

L O N D O N

Printed for John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield,

and are to be sold at the Crown and Marygold

in Saint Pauls Church-yard. 1648.

Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.

Emerson

THE

RULE AND

EXERCISES

OF HOLY

LIVING

By Jer. Taylor D:D.

Non magna loquimur

sed vivimus

LONDON printed for R. Royston

in Ivye Lane. 1650.

Ro: Vaughan sculp.

That is a book you should read: such sweet religion in it, next to Woolman's, though the subject be bait, and hooks, and worms, and fishes.

Lamb

The

Compleat Angler

or the

Contemplative man's

Recreation

Being a Discourse of

FISH and FISHING,

Not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers.

Simon Peter said, I go a fishing: and they said, We

also wil go with thee. John 21. 3.

London, Printed by T. Maxey for Rich. Marriot, in

S. Dunstans Church-yard Fleetstreet, 1653.

Prior

HUDIBRAS

THE FIRST PART.

Written in the time of the late Wars.

(Illustration)

L O N D O N.

Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriot, under Saint

Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet. 1663.

The third among the sons of light.

Shelley

Paradise lost.

A

POEM

Written in

TEN BOOKS

By JOHN MILTON.

Licensed and Entred according

to Order.

L O N D O N

Printed, and are to be sold by Peter Parker

under Creed Church neer Aldgate; And by

Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Bishopsgate-street;

And Matthias Walker, under St. Dunstons Church

in Fleet-street, 1667.

Cowper

THE

Pilgrim's Progress

FROM

THIS WORLD,

TO

That which is to come:

Delivered under the Similitude of a

DREAM

Wherein is Discovered,

The manner of his setting out,

His Dangerous Journey; And safe

Arrival at the Desired Countrey.

I have used Similitudes, Hos. 12. 10.

By John Bunyan.

Licensed and Entred according to Order.

L O N D O N,

Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock

in the Poultrey near Cornhil, 1678.

Gray

ABSALOM

AND

ACHITOPHEL.

A

P O E M.

——Si Propiùs stes

Te Capiet Magis——

L O N D O N,

Printed for J. T. and are to be Sold by W. Davis in

Amen-Corner, 1681.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.75 × 12.56 inches.

Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they appeared, or have so influenced opinion afterwards as Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding. The art of education, political thought, theology and philosophy, especially in Britain, France and America, long bore the stamp of the Essay, or of reaction against it.

Fraser

AN

E S S A Y

CONCERNING

Humane Understanding.

In Four B O O K S.

Quam bellum est velle confiteri potius nescire quod nescias, quam ista effutientem nauseare, atque ipsum sibi displicere! Cic. de Natur. Deor. l. 1.

(illustration)

L O N D O N:

Printed by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Basset, at the

George in Fleetstreet, near St. Dunstan's

Church. MDCXC.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.18 × 12.62 inches

Dryden

THE

Way of the World,

A

COMEDY.

As it is ACTED

AT THE

Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields,

BY

His Majesty's Servants.

Written by Mr. CONGREVE.

Audire est Operæ pretium, procedere recte

Qui mæchis non vultis—— Hor. Sat. 2. l. 1.

——Metuat doti deprensa.—— Ibid.

L O N D O N:

Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Gray's-Inn-Gate next

Gray's-Inn-Lane. 1700.

Reduced Leaf in original, 6.5 × 8.5 inches.

For an Englishman there is no single historical work with which it can be so necessary for him to be well and thoroughly acquainted as with Clarendon.

Southey

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

Rebellion and Civil Wars

IN

E N G L A N D,

Begun in the Year 1641.

With the precedent Passages, and Actions, that contributed thereunto, and the happy End, and Conclusion thereof by the KING's blessed RESTORATION, and RETURN upon the 29^th of May, in the Year 1660.

Written by the Right Honourable

EDWARD Earl of CLARENDON,

Late Lord High Chancellour of England, Privy Counsellour

in the Reigns of King Charles the First and the Second.

κτῆμα ἐς ἀεί Thucyd.

Ne quid Falsi dicere audeat, ne quid Veri non audeat. Cicero.

Volume the First.

(Illustration)

O X F O R D,

Printed at the Theater, An. Dom. MDCCII.

Reduced Leaf in original, 11 × 17.5 inches.

It is incredible to conceive the effect his writings have had upon the Town; how many thousand follies they have either quite banished or given a very great check to! how much countenance they have added to Virtue and Religion! how many people they have rendered happy, by showing them it was their own fault if they were not so! and lastly how entirely they have convinced our young fops and young fellows of the value and advantages of Learning! He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of pedants, and fools, and discovered the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all mankind. In the dress he gives it, it is a most welcome guest at tea-tables and assemblies, and is relished and caressed by the merchants on the Change. Accordingly, there is not a Lady at Court, nor a Broker in Lombard Street, who is not easily persuaded that Captain Steele is the greatest Scholar and Casuist of any man in England.

Gay

THE

LUCUBRATIONS

OF

Isaac Bickerstaff Esq;

VOL. I.

οὐ χρὴ παννύχιον εὕδειν βουληφόρον ἄνδρα Homer.

(Illustration)

L O N D O N,

Printed: And sold by John Morphew, near Stationers-Hall. MDCCX.

Note, The Bookbinder is desired to place the INDEX after [Tosler, N^o. 114]

which ends the First Volume in Folio.

Reduced Leaf in original, 9.50 × 14.37 inches

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

Johnson

Numb. 1

The SPECTATOR.

Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem

Cogitat; ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat. Hor.

To be Continued every Day.

Thursday, March 1. 1711.

I Have observed, that a Reader seldom peruses a Book with Pleasure 'till he knows whether the Writer of it be a black or a fair Man, of a mild or cholerick Disposition, Married or a Batchelor, with other Particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right Understanding of an Author. To gratify this Curiosity, which is so natural to a Reader, I design this Paper, and my next, as Prefatory Discourses to my following Writings, and shall give some Account in them of the several Persons that are engaged in this Work. As the chief Trouble of Compiling, Digesting and Correcting will fall to my Share, I must do my self the Justice to open the Work with my own History.

I was born to a small Hereditary Estate, which I find, by the Writings of the Family, was bounded by the same Hedges and Ditches in William the Conqueror's Time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from Father to Son whole and entire, without the Loss or Acquisition of a single Field or Meadow, during the Space of six hundred Years. There goes a Story in the Family, that when my Mother was gone with Child of me about three Months, she dreamt that she was brought to Bed of a Judge: Whether this might proceed from a Law-Suit which was then depending in the Family, or my Father's being a Justice of the Peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any Dignity that I should arrive at in my future Life, though that was the Interpretation which the Neighbourhood put upon it. The Gravity of my Behaviour at my very first Appearance in the World, and all the Time that I sucked, seemed to favour my Mother's Dream: For, as she has often told me, I threw away my Rattle before I was two Months old, and would not make use of my Coral 'till they had taken away the Bells from it.

As for the rest of my Infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass it over in Silence. I find that, during my Nonage, I had the Reputation of a very sullen Youth, but was always a Favourite of my School-Master, who used to say, that my Parts were solid and would wear well. I had not been long at the University, before I distinguished my self by a most profound Silence: For, during the Space of eight Years, excepting in the publick Exercises of the College, I scarce uttered the Quantity of an hundred Words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three Sentences together in my whole Life. Whilst I was in this Learned Body I applied my self with so much Diligence to my Studies, that there are very few celebrated Books, either in the Learned or the Modern Tongues, which I am not acquainted with.

Upon the Death of my Father I was resolved to travel into Foreign Countries, and therefore left the University, with the Character of an odd unaccountable Fellow, that had a great deal of Learning, if I would but show it. An insatiable Thirst after Knowledge carried me into all the Countries of Europe, where there was any thing new or strange to be seen; nay, to such a Degree was my Curiosity raised, that having read the Controversies of some great Men concerning the Antiquities of Egypt, I made a Voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the Measure of a Pyramid; and as soon as I had set my self right in that Particular, returned to my Native Country with great Satisfaction.

I have passed my latter Years in this City, where I am frequently seen in most publick Places, tho' there are not above half a dozen of my select Friends that know me; of whom my next Paper shall give a more particular Account. There is no Place of publick Resort, wherein I do not often make my Appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my Head into a Round of Politicians at Will's, and listning with great Attention to the Narratives that are made in those little Circular Audiences. Sometimes I smoak a Pipe at Child's; and whilst I seem attentive to nothing but the Post-Man, over-hear the Conversation of every Table in the Room. I appear on Sunday Nights at St. James's Coffee-House, and sometimes join the little Committee of Politicks in the Inner-Room, as one who comes there to hear and improve. My Face is likewise very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa-Tree, and in the Theaters both of Drury-Lane, and the Hay-Market. I have been taken for a Merchant

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.12 × 13.12 inches.

It breathes throughout a spirit of piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light the importance of the mechanic arts, which they who know not what it is to be without them are apt to undervalue. It fixes in the mind a lively idea of the horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the sweets of social life, and of the blessings we derive from conversation and mutual aid; and it shows how by labouring with one's own hands, one may secure independence, and open for one's self many sources of health and amusement. I agree, therefore, with Rousseau, that this is one of the best books that can be put into the hands of children.

Beattie

THE

LIFE

AND

Strange Surprizing

ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE,

Of YORK, Mariner:

Who lived Eight and Twenty Years,

all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the

Coast of America, near the Mouth of

the Great River of Oroonoque;

Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein

all the Men perished but himself.

WITH

An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd

by PYRATES.

Written by Himself.

LONDON:

Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row.

MDCCXIX.

Anima Rabelasii habitans in sicco

Coleridge

TRAVELS

INTO SEVERAL

Remote Nations

OF THE

WORLD.

In Four PARTS.

By LEMUEL GULLIVER,

First a Surgeon, and then a Captain

of several SHIPS.

Vol. I.

L O N D O N:

Printed for Benj. Motte, at the

Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street.

Mdccxxvi.

I think no English poet ever brought so much sense into the same number of lines with equal smoothness, ease, and poetical beauty. Let him who doubts of this peruse the Essay on Man with attention.

Shenstone

AN

E S S A Y

ON

M A N

Address'd to a FRIEND.

PART I.

(Illustration)

L O N D O N:

Printed for J. Wilford, at the Three Flower-de-luces, behind

the Chapter-house, St. Pauls.

[Price One Shilling.]

1733

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.5 × 12.62 inches.

It was about this date, I suppose, that I read Bishop Butler's Analogy; the study of which has been to so many, as it was to me, an era in their religious opinions. Its inculcation of a visible church, the oracle of truth and a pattern of sanctity, of the duties of external religion, and of the historical character of Revelation, are characteristics of this great work which strike the reader at once; for myself, if I may attempt to determine what I most gained from it, it lay in two points which I shall have an opportunity of dwelling on in the sequel: they are the underlying principles of a great portion of my teaching.

Newman

THE

ANALOGY

OF

RELIGION,

Natural and Revealed,

TO THE

Constitution and Course of NATURE.

To which are added

Two brief DISSERTATIONS:

I. Of Personal Identity.

II. Of the Nature of Virtue.

BY

JOSEPH BUTLER, L L. D. Rector of

Stanhope, in the Bishoprick of Durham.

Ejus (Analogiæ) hæc vis est, ut id quod dubium est, ad aliquid simile de quo

non quæritur, referat; ut incerta certis probet.

Quint. Inst. Orat. L. I. c. vi.

L O N D O N:

Printed for James, John and Paul Knapton, at the

Crown in Ludgate Street. MDCCXXXVI.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.87 × 10.18 inches.

I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas that I found not my heart mooved more than with a Trumpet.

Sidney

RELIQUES

OF

ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY:

CONSISTING OF

Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other

Pieces of our earlier Poets,

(Chiefly of the Lyric kind.)

Together with some few of later Date.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

(Illustration: DURAT OPUS VATUM)

L O N D O N:

Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall.

M DCC LXV.

Watson

ODES

ON SEVERAL

Descriptive and Allegoric

SUBJECTS.

By William Collins.

——Ειην

Ευρησιεπης αναγεισθαι

Ευρησιεπης αναγεισθαι

Τολμα δε και αμφιλαφης Δυναμις

Πινδαρ. Ολυμπ. Θ.

(Illustration)

L O N D O N:

Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand.

M.DCC.XLVII.

(Price One Shilling.)

The first book in the world for the knowledge it displays of the human heart.

Johnson

CLARISSA.

OR, THE

HISTORY

OF A

YOUNG LADY:

Comprehending

The most Important Concerns of Private Life.

And particularly shewing,

The Distresses that may attend the Misconduct

Both of Parents and Children,

In Relation to Marriage.

Published by the Editor of PAMELA.

VOL. I.

(Illustration)

LONDON:

Printed for S. Richardson:

And Sold by A. Millar, over-against Catharine-street in the Strand:

J. and Ja. Rivington, in St. Paul's Church-yard:

John Osborn, in Pater-noster Row;

And by J. Leake, at Bath.

M.DCC.XLVIII.

Upon my word I think the Œdipus Tyrannus, the Alchymist, and Tom Jones the three most perfect plots ever planned.

Coleridge

THE

HISTORY

OF

TOM JONES,

A

FOUNDLING.

In SIX VOLUMES.

By HENRY FIELDING, Esq.

——Mores hominum multorum vidit——

L O N D O N:

Printed for A. Millar, over-against

Catharine-street in the Strand.

Mdccxlix.

Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec.

Wolfe

AN

E L E G Y

WROTE IN A

Country Church Yard.

L O N D O N:

Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-mall;

And sold by M. Cooper in Pater-noster-Row. 1751.

[Price Six-pence.]

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.37 × 9.81 inches

I have devoted this book, the labour of years, to the honour of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology without a contest to the nations of the Continent.

Johnson

A

DICTIONARY

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE:

IN WHICH

The WORDS are deduced from their ORIGINALS,

AND

ILLUSTRATED in their DIFFERENT SIGNIFICATIONS

BY

EXAMPLES from the best WRITERS.

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,

A HISTORY of the LANGUAGE,

AND

An ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

By SAMUEL JOHNSON, A. M.

In TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

L O N D O N,

Printed by W. Strahan,

For J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes;

A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley.

MDCCLV.

Reduced Leaf in original, 10 × 16.18 inches.

Eripuit cœlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis

Turgot

Poor RICHARD improved:

BEING AN

A L M A N A C K

AND

EPHEMERIS

OF THE

Motions of the SUN and MOON;

THE TRUE

Places and Aspects of the Planets;

THE

RISING and SETTING of the SUN;

AND THE

Rising, Setting and Southing of the Moon,

FOR THE

Year of our LORD 1758:

Being the Second after Leap-Year.

Containing also,

The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment of the Weather, Rising and Setting of the Planets, Length of Days and Nights, Fairs, Courts, Roads, &c. Together with useful Tables, chronological Observations, and entertaining Remarks.

Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, and a Meridian of near five Hours West from London; but may, without feasible Error, serve all the Northern Colonies.

By RICHARD SAUNDERS, Philom.

PHILADELPEIA:

Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall.

There your son will find analytical reasoning diffused in a pleasing and perspicuous style. There he may imbibe, imperceptibly, the first principles on which our excellent laws are founded; and there he may become acquainted with an uncouth crabbed author, Coke upon Lytleton, who has disappointed and disheartened many a tyro, but who cannot fail to please in a modern dress.

Mansfield

COMMENTARIES

ON THE

LAWS

OF

ENGLAND.

BOOK THE FIRST.

BY

WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, Esq.

VINERIAN PROFESSOR OF LAW,

AND

SOLICITOR GENERAL TO HER MAJESTY.

O X F O R D,

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

M. DCC. LXV.

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.37 × 13.37 inches.

I received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle of madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated. He then told me he had a novel (The Vicar of Wakefield) ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return; and, having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill.

Johnson

THE

V I C A R

OF

WAKEFIELD:

A TALE.

Supposed to be written by Himself.

Sperate miseri, cavete fælices.

V O L. I.

SALISBURY:

Printed by B. COLLINS,

For F. Newbery, in Pater-Noster-Row, London.

MDCCLXVI.

His exquisite sensibility is ever counteracted by his perception of the ludicrous and his ambition after the strange.

Talfourd

A

SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

THROUGH

FRANCE AND ITALY.

BY

Mr. YORICK.

VOL. I.

L O N D O N:

Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt,

in the Strand. MDCCLXVIII.

I know not indeed of any work on the principles of free government that is to be compared, in instruction, and intrinsic value, to this small and unpretending volume of The Federalist, not even if we resort to Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavel, Montesquieu, Milton, Locke, or Burke. It is equally admirable in the depth of its wisdom, the comprehensiveness of its views, the sagacity of its reflections, and the fearlessness, patriotism, candor, simplicity, and elegance with which its truths are uttered and recommended.

Chancellor Kent

T H E

FEDERALIST:

A COLLECTION

O F

E S S A Y S,

WRITTEN IN FAVOUR OF THE

NEW CONSTITUTION,

AS AGREED UPON BY THE FEDERAL CONVENTION,

SEPTEMBER 17, 1787.

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

N E W-Y O R K:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. AND A. M'LEAN,

No. 41, HANOVER-SQUARE,

M,DCC,LXXXVIII.

The novel of Humphrey Clinker is, I do think, the most laughable story that has ever been written since the goodly art of novel-writing began. Winifred Jenkins and Tabitha Bramble must keep Englishmen on the grin for ages to come; and in their letters and the story of their loves there is a perpetual fount of sparkling laughter, as inexhaustible as Bladud's well.

Thackeray

THE

EXPEDITION

OF

HUMPHRY CLINKER.

By the Author of

RODERICK RANDOM.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

V O L. I.

L O N D O N,

Printed for W. Johnston, in Ludgate-Street;

and B. Collins, in Salisbury.

MDCLXXI.

That is a book you should read: Adam Smith contributed more by the publication of this single work towards the happiness of men than has been effected by the united abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom history has preserved an authentic account.

Buckle

AN

I N Q U I R Y

INTO THE

Nature and Causes

OF THE

WEALTH of NATIONS.

By ADAM SMITH, LL. D. and F. R. S.

Formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow.

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR W. STRAHAN; AND T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND.

MDCCLXXVI.

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.62 × 10.87 inches.

Byron

THE

H I S T O R Y

OF THE

DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

R O M A N E M P I R E,

By EDWARD GIBBON, Esq;

VOLUME THE FIRST.

Jam provideo animo, velut qui, proximis littori vadis inducti, mare pedibus ingrediuntur, quicquid progredior, in vastiorem me altitudinem, ac velut profundum invehi; et crescere pene opus, quod prima quæque perficiendo minui videbatur.

L O N D O N:

PRINTED FOR W. STRAHAN; AND T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND.

MDCCLXXVI.

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.25-10.31 inches

Whatever Sheridan has done, or chosen to do, has been par excellence always the best of its kind. He has written the best comedy (School for Scandal), the best drama (in my mind far beyond that St. Giles lampoon, the Beggar's Opera), the best farce (the Critic,—and it is only too good for a farce), and the best address (Monologue on Garrick), and, to crown all, delivered the very best oration (the famous Begum speech) ever conceived or heard in this country.

Byron

THE

SCHOOL

FOR

SCANDAL.

A

COMEDY.

DRYDEN.

DUBLIN:

Printed for J. Ewling

Of all the verses that have been ever devoted to the subject of domestic happiness, those in his Winter Evening, at the opening of the fourth book of the Task, are perhaps the most beautiful.

Campbell

T H E

T A S K,

A

P O E M,

IN SIX BOOKS.

By WILLIAM COWPER,

OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQ.

Fit surculus arbor.

Anonym.

To which are added,

BY THE SAME AUTHOR,

An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a

Review of Schools, and the History of John Gilpin.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, N^o 72, ST. PAUL'S

CHURCH-YARD.

1785.

Wordsworth

P O E M S,

CHIEFLY IN THE

SCOTTISH DIALECT,

BY

ROBERT BURNS.

KILMARNOCK:

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON.

M,DCC,LXXXVI.

Open the book where you will, it takes you out-of-doors. In simplicity of taste and natural refinement he reminds you of Walton; in tenderness toward what he would have called the brute creation, of Cowper. He seems to have lived before the Fall. His volumes are the journal of Adam in Paradise.

Lowell

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

AND

ANTIQUITIES

OF

S E L B O R N E,

IN THE

COUNTY of SOUTHAMPTON:

WITH

ENGRAVINGS, and an APPENDIX.

"Omnia benè describere, quæ in hoc mundo, a Deo facta, aut Naturæ creatæ viribus elaborata fuerunt, opus est non unius hominis, nec unius ævi. Hinc Faunæ & Floræ utilissimæ; hine Monographi præstantissimi."

Scopoli Ann. Hist. Nat.

L O N D O N:

PRINTED BY T. BENSLEY;

FOR B. WHITE AND SON, AT HORACE'S HEAD, FLEET STREET.

M,DCC,LXXXIX,

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.43 × 9.5 inches.

He is without parallel in any age or country, except perhaps Lord Bacon or Cicero; and his works contain an ampler store of political and moral wisdom than can be found in any other writer whatever.

Mackintosh

R E F L E C T I O N S

ON THE

REVOLUTION IN FRANCE,

AND ON THE

PROCEEDINGS IN CERTAIN SOCIETIES

IN LONDON

RELATIVE TO THAT EVENT.

IN A

L E T T E R

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN SENT TO A GENTLEMAN

IN PARIS.

BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

E D M U N D B U R K E.

L O N D O N:

PRINTED FOR J. DODSLEY, IN PALL-MALL.

M.DCC.XC.

The great Commoner of mankind

Conway

RIGHTS OF MAN:

BEING AN

ANSWER to MR. BURKE's ATTACK

ON THE

FRENCH REVOLUTION.

BY

THOMAS PAINE,

SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO CONGRESS IN THE

AMERICAN WAR, and

AUTHOR OF THE WORK INTITLED COMMON SENSE.

L O N D O N:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, St PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

MDCCXCI.

Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of the dramatists, Demosthenes is not more sensibly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biographers.

Macaulay

THE

L I F E

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

COMPREHENDING

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES

AND NUMEROUS WORKS,

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;

A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE

AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

AND

VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN

IN GREAT-BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY,

DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

By JAMES BOSWELL, Esq.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

L O N D O N:

PRINTED BY HENRY BALDWIN,

FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.

M DCC XCI.

Reduced Leaf in original, 8.18 × 10.68 inches.

Arnold

LYRICAL BALLADS,

WITH

A FEW OTHER POEMS.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. & A. ARCH, GRACECHURCH-STREET.

1798.

The history was hailed with delight as the most witty and original production from any American pen. The first foreign critic was Scott, who read it aloud in his family till their sides were sore with laughing.

Warner

A HISTORY

OF

NEW YORK,

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THE

END OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY.

CONTAINING

Among many Surprising and Curious Matters, the Unutterable Ponderings of Walter the Doubter, the Disastrous Projects of William the Testy, and the Chivalric Achievments of Peter the Headstrong, the three Dutch Governors of New Amsterdam; being the only Authentic History of the Times that ever hath been, or ever will be Published.

BY DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER.

De waarheid die in duister lag,

Die komt met klaarheid aan den dag.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PUBLISHED BY INSKEEP & BRADFORD, NEW YORK; BRADFORD & INSKEEP, PHILADELPHIA; WM. M'ILHENNEY, BOSTON; COALE & THOMAS, BALTIMORE; AND MORFORD, WILLINGTON, & CO. CHARLESTON.

1809.

Shelley

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

A ROMAUNT.

BY

LORD BYRON.

L'univers est une espèce de livre, dont on n'a lu que la première page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuilleté un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouvé également mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point été infructueux. Je haïssais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vécu, m'ont réconcilié avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tiré d'autre bénéfice de mes voyages que celui-là, je n'en regretterais ni les frais, ni les fatigues.

Le Cosmopolite.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, 32, FLEET-STREET;

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND JOHN CUMMING, DUBLIN.

By Thomas Davison, White-Friars.

1812.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.93 × 10.18 inches.

I read again, and for the third time, Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements, feelings, and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with. The big bow-wow I can do myself like any one going; but the exquisite touch, which renders commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied me. What a pity so gifted a creature died so early!

Scott

PRIDE

AND

PREJUDICE:

A NOVEL.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

BY THE

AUTHOR OF "SENSE AND SENSIBILITY."

VOL. I.

London:

PRINTED FOR T. EGERTON,

MILITARY LIBRARY, WHITEHALL.

1813.

A subtle-souled psychologist

Shelley

CHRISTABEL:

KUBLA KHAN,

A VISION;

THE PAINS OF SLEEP.

BY

S. T. COLERIDGE, ESQ.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET,

BY WILLIAM BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND-ROW,

ST. JAMES'S.

1816.

Tennyson

IVANHOE;

A ROMANCE.

BY "THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY," &c.

Prior.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. 90, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.

1820.

LAMIA,

ISABELLA,

THE EVE OF ST. AGNES,

AND

OTHER POEMS.

BY JOHN KEATS,

AUTHOR OF ENDYMION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND HESSEY,

FLEET-STREET.

1820.

Cor cordium

Epitaph

ADONAIS

AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS,

AUTHOR OF ENDYMION, HYPERION ETC.

BY

PERCY. B. SHELLEY

Ἀστὴρ πρὶν μὲν ἔλαμπες ἐνὶ ζωοῖσιν ἑῷος.

Νῦν δὲ θανὼν λάμπεις Ἕσπερος ἐν φθιμένοις.

PLATO.

PISA

WITH THE TYPES OF DIDOT

MDCCCXXI.

Reduced Leaf in original, 7.43 × 10.06 inches.

And the more we walk around his image, and the closer we look, the more nearly we arrive at this conclusion, that the Elia on our shelves is all but the same being as the pleasant Charles who was so loved by his friends, who ransomed from the stalls, to use old Richard of Bury's phrase, his Thomas Browne and the "dear silly old angel" Fuller, and who stammered out such quaint jests and puns—"Saint Charles," as Thackeray once called him, while looking at one of his half-mad letters, and remembering his devotion to that quite mad sister.

Fitzgerald

ELIA.

ESSAYS WHICH HAVE APPEARED UNDER THAT SIGNATURE

IN THE

LONDON MAGAZINE.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND HESSEY,

FLEET-STREET.

1823.

The most confiding of diarists, the most harmless of turncoats, the most wondering of quidnuncs, the fondest and most penitential of faithless husbands, the most admiring, yet grieving, of the beholders of the ladies of Charles II, the Sancho Panza of the most insipid of Quixotes, James II, who did bestow on him (in naval matters) the government of a certain "island," which, to say the truth, he administered to the surprise and edification of all who bantered him. Many official patriots have, doubtless, existed since his time, and thousands, nay millions of respectable men of all sorts gone to their long account, more or less grave in public, and frail to their consciences; but when shall we meet with such another as he was?

Hunt

MEMOIRS

OF

SAMUEL PEPYS, ESQ. F.R.S.

SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY

IN THE REIGNS OF CHARLES II. AND JAMES II.

COMPRISING

H I S D I A R Y

FROM 1659 TO 1669,

DECIPHERED BY THE REV. JOHN SMITH, A. B. OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

FROM THE ORIGINAL SHORT-HAND MS. IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY,

AND A SELECTION FROM HIS

P R I V A T E C O R R E S P O N D E N C E.

(Illustration)

EDITED BY

RICHARD, LORD BRAYBROOKE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

MDCCCXXV.

Reduced Leaf in original, 9.25 × 11.87 inches.

While the love of country continues to prevail, his memory will exist in the hearts of the people.

Webster

THE LAST

OF

THE MOHICANS;

A NARRATIVE OF

1757.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE PIONEERS."

"Mislike me not, for my complexion,

The shadowed livery of the burnished sun."

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:

H. C. CAREY & I. LEA—CHESNUT-STREET.

1826.

Swinburne

PERICLES AND ASPASIA

BY

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, Esq.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON

SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.

1836.

Thankfully I take my share of love and kindness which this generous and gentle and charitable soul has contributed to the world. I take and enjoy my share and say a benediction for the meal.

Thackeray

THE

PICKWICK PAPERS.

BY

CHARLES DICKENS.

(Illustration: PHIZ. feat.)

LONDON

CHAPMAN and HALL 186 STRAND

MDCCCXXXVII.

Carlyle alone with his wide humanity has, since Coleridge, kept to us the promises of England. His provokes rather than informs. He blows down narrow walls, and struggles, in a lurid light, like the Jótuns, to throw the old woman Time; in his work there is too much of the anvil and the forge, not enough hay-making under the sun. He makes us act rather than think; he does not say, know thyself, which is impossible, but know thy work. He has no pillars of Hercules, no clear goal, but an endless Atlantis horizon. He exaggerates. Yes: but he makes the hour great, the future bright, the reverence and admiration strong: while mere precise fact is a coil of lead.

Thoreau

SARTOR RESARTUS.

IN THREE BOOKS.

Reprinted for Friends from Fraser's Magazine.

Mein Vermächtniss, wie herrlich weit und breit!

Die Zeit ist mein Vermächtniss, mein Acker ist die Zeit.

LONDON:

JAMES FRASER, 215 REGENT STREET.

M.DCCC.XXXIV.

It was good to meet him in the wood-paths with that pure intellectual gleam diffused about his presence, like the garment of a shining one; and he so quiet, so simple, so without pretension, encountering each man as if expecting to receive more than he could impart.

Hawthorne

NATURE.

"Nature is but an image or imitation of wisdom, the last thing of the soul; nature being a thing which doth only do, but not know."

Plotinus.

BOSTON:

JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.

M DCCC XXXVI.

The result of all his labors of research, thought and composition was a history possessing the unity, variety and interest of a magnificent poem.

Whipple

HISTORY

OF THE

CONQUEST OF PERU,

WITH A PRELIMINARY VIEW

OF THE

CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.

BY

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE; OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY

OF HISTORY AT MADRID, ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOLUME I.

NEW YORK:

HARPER AND BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET.

M DCCC XLVII.

When all is said, Poe remains a master of fantastic and melancholy sound. Some foolish old legend tells of a musician who surpassed all his rivals. His strains were unearthly sad, and ravished the ears of those who listened with a strange melancholy. Yet his viol had but a single string, and the framework was fashioned out of a dead woman's breast-bone. Poe's verse—the parallel is much in his own taste—resembles that player's minstrelsy.

Lang

THE RAVEN

AND

OTHER POEMS

BY

EDGAR A. POE.

NEW YORK:

WILEY AND PUTNAM, 161 BROADWAY.

1845.

Arnold

JANE EYRE.

An Autobiography.

EDITED BY

CURRER BELL.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., CORNHILL.

1847.

The poem already is a little classic, and will remain one, just as surely as The Vicar of Wakefield, The Deserted Village, or any other sweet and pious idyl of our English tongue.

Stedman

EVANGELINE,

A

TALE OF ACADIE.

BY

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

BOSTON:

WILLIAM D. TICKNOR & COMPANY.

1847.

The most exquisite poetry hitherto written by a woman.

Stedman

SONNETS.

BY

E. B. B.

READING:

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION.]

1847.

Clough

MELIBŒUS-HIPPONAX.

THE

Biglow Papers,

EDITED,

WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES, GLOSSARY,

AND COPIOUS INDEX,

BY

HOMER WILBUR, A. M.,

PASTOR OF THIS FIRST CHURCH IN JAALAM, AND (PROSPECTIVE) MEMBER OF

MANY LITERARY, LEARNED AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES,

(for which see page v.)

The ploughman's whistle, or the trivial flute, Finds more respect than great Apollo's lute.

Quarles's Emblems, B. II. E. 8.

Margaritas, munde porcine, calcâsti: en, siliquas accipe.

Jac. Car. Fil. ad Pub. Leg. §1.

CAMBRIDGE:

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE NICHOLS.

1848.

There is a man in our own days whose words are not framed to tickle delicate ears; who, to my thinking, comes before the great ones of society much as the son of Imlah came before the throned Kings of Judah and Israel; and who speaks truth as deep, with a power as prophet-like and as vital—a mien as dauntless and as daring. Is the satirist of Vanity Fair admired in high places?—They say he is like Fielding; they talk of his wit, humour, comic powers. He resembles Fielding as an eagle does a vulture: Fielding could stoop on carrion, but Thackeray never does. His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear the same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent sheet-lightning, playing under the edge of the summer cloud, does to the electric death-spark hid in its womb.

Brontë

VANITY FAIR

A Novel without a Hero.

BY

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

(Illustration)

LONDON

BRADBURY & EVANS, BOUVERIE STREET,

1848

The cleverest and most fascinating of narrators.

Freeman

THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM

THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II.

BY

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY.

VOLUME I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1849.

Aldrich

IN MEMORIAM.

LONDON.

EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET.

1850.

Lowell

THE

SCARLET LETTER,

A ROMANCE.

BY

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

BOSTON:

TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS

M DCCC L.

That is a book you should read: Works of imagination written with an aim to immediate impression are commonly ephemeral; but the creative faculty of Mrs. Stowe, like that of Cervantes in Don Quixote and of Fielding in Joseph Andrews, overpowered the narrow specialty of her design, and expanded a local and temporary theme with the cosmopolitanism of genius.

Lowell

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN;

OR,

LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY.

BY

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

(Illustration)

VOL. I.

BOSTON:

JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY.

CLEVELAND, OHIO:

JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON.

1852.

A strange, unexpected and, I believe, most true and excellent sermon in Stones—as well as the best piece of school-mastery in architectonics.

Carlyle

THE

Stones of Venice.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

The Foundations.

BY JOHN RUSKIN,

AUTHOR OF "THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE," "MODERN PAINTERS,"

ETC. ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN BY THE AUTHOR.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65. CORNHILL.

1851.

Reduced Leaf in orignal 7 x 10 inches.

Landor

MEN AND WOMEN.

BY

ROBERT BROWNING.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.

1855.

Far from making his book a mere register of events, he has penetrated deep below the surface and explored the causes of these events. He has carefully studied the physiognomy of the times and given finished portraits of the great men who conducted the march of the revolution.

Prescott

THE RISE

OF THE

DUTCH REPUBLIC.

A History.

BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL I.

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS,

329 & 331 PEARL STREET.

1856.

The sphere which she has made specially her own is that quiet English country life which she knew in early youth. She has done for it what Scott did for the Scotch peasantry, or Fielding for the eighteenth century Englishman, or Thackeray for the higher social stratum of his time.

Stephen

ADAM BEDE

BY

GEORGE ELIOT

AUTHOR OF

"SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE"

Wordsworth.

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. I.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCLIX

The Right of Translation is reserved.

The most potent instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowledge which has come into men's hands since the publication of Newton's Principia is Darwin's Origin of Species.

Huxley

ON

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION,

OR THE

PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE

FOR LIFE.

By CHARLES DARWIN, M.A.,

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL, GEOLOGICAL, LINNÆAN, ETC., SOCIETIES;

AUTHOR OF 'JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES DURING H.M.S. BEAGLE'S VOYAGE

ROUND THE WORLD.'

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1859.

The right of Translation is reserved.

Tennyson

RUBÁIYÁT

OF

OMAR KHAYYÁM,

THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA.

Translated into English Verse.

LONDON:

BERNARD QUARITCH,

CASTLE STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.

1859.

I know of no writings which combine, as Cardinal Newman's do, so penetrating an insight into the realities of the human world around us in all its details, with so unwavering an inwardness of standard in estimating and judging that world; so steady a knowledge of the true vanity of human life with so steady a love for that which is not vanity or vexation of spirit.

Hutton

APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA:

BEING

A Reply to a Pamphlet

"WHAT, THEN, DOES DR. NEWMAN MEAN?"

BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, AND GREEN.

1864.

In his prose writings there was discernible an intellectual hauteur which contrasted with the uneasiness and moral incertitude of his versified moods, and which implied that a dogmatist stood erect under the shifting sensitiveness of the poet. A dogmatist—for Mr. Arnold is not merely a critic who interprets the minds of other men through his sensitiveness and his sympathies; he delivers with authority the conclusions of his intellect; he formulates ideas.

Dowden

ESSAYS IN CRITICISM.

BY

MATTHEW ARNOLD,

PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

London and Cambridge:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1865.

The most faithful picture of our northern winter that has yet been put into poetry.

Burroughs

SNOW-BOUND.

A WINTER IDYL.

BY

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

(Illustration)

BOSTON:

TICKNOR AND FIELDS.

1866.