— — cr A = _^^ :i. = ^~ ^ m :^= HD ^ ^^= ^ 4 — ^»— = ,1 ^ -' H = £ 5 = ■ rr ^ ^ ^^ ^^^ -^ H = = ^ __^ o ^= ^H^ -< UNIVERSITY AT LOS CATALOGUE OF AN EXHIBITION OF ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS FIRST EDITIONS IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH LITERATURE FROM DECEMBER 1ST TO 14TH 1909 ERNEST DRESSEL NORTH I 1,-1 • — 4 EAST 39'rH STREET NEW YORK CATALOGUE OF AN EXHIBITION OF ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS FIRST EDITIONS IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH LITERATURE FROM ^DECEMBER 1ST TO 14TH . f. -1 ' »• o • o ■»•« ,'N » J « * * > « ERNEST DRESSEL NORTH 4 EAST 39th STREET NEW YORK • • • « • *• * « * « • • • • • • • • »•• _• • • • • « • "• • THE TROW PRESS NEW YORK > >• r5U8 ^ FOREWORD The object of this exhibition is to illustrate the present tendencies in book collecting. It must be apparent to careful observers of the trend of collecting that fads, like dogs, have their day, and that he who invests in books with a purely speculative interest must determine first the line in which he is to collect, and then ask himself if his choice is a profitable one, and interesting to others, no matter how attractive it may be to him. The great auction sales in America since the close of the Civil War are fairly indicative of the tastes and tendencies of the collector, while a study of prices is most interesting to those who care to investigate. One or two great central streams are to be found in all this variety of collecting. Within a brief period book libraries in America will rival those on the Continent and in England. In view of such libraries as those of Mr. Hoe, INIr. Morgan, Mr. Church, and Mr. Halsey, it is safe to say that they do rival the great private col- lections abroad. History, it is said, repeats itself, and the experiences of these collectors, if written, would make interesting reading to the iminitiated. Most men who have formed great libraries have found their hobby a recreation, a relief, and a fountain of joy to their tired nerves, a veri- table Elysium for their weary spirits. The same quali- ties that insin-e success in the pursuit of fortunes, or honors of any sort, are essential in the book collector; interest, knowledge, and what may be termed scent. ^lany a successful " find " has come from a percep- tion of what is great, lasting, and permanent, through instinct rather than knowledge. The widening interest in the great monuments of English literature is one of the deductions to be made by a student of tendencies in collecting during the last forty 402919 years. A\^ill the first folio Shakespeare ever fetch less than £2,500, or Walton's " Complete Angler " sell for a more moderate price than £1,200? The books in this exhibition of One Hmidred Famous Books in Enghsh and French literature are not selected exclusively for their rarity, or for their fame above 100 other books which some one else might have selected, but they may fairly be called famous books which are repre- sentative of the time in which they were written, or of the authors who wrote them. Obviously such an exhibition must be composed of books which are accessible. Twenty-five experts will readily select the first twenty-five books — Shakespeare, ]\Iilton, Spenser, Chaucer, Goldsmith, Johnson, Bacon, Fielding, etc. Such authors occur to the mind at once, but after the first fifty are selected, " Aye, there's the rub!" In this catalogue, where there is more than one vol- ume, only the title-page of the first volume is given. For example, Defoe's " Robinson Crusoe " was pub- hshed in three parts — the first and second in 1719 and the third in 1720. Obviously the descriptions are brief, but particular attention has been given to accuracy. It would be an easy matter to give an account of the impor- tance of the books displayed, but it is hoped that this is rendered unnecessary by the fame as well as the distinc- tion of the books included. The bibhographical and literary notices attached to the books are in many cases selected from the able notes published by the Grolier Club of the City of New York at the time of their exhibition of " One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature," given in 1902. Ac- knowledgment is hereby made to this interesting and able catalogue. The earhest book displayed by the Grolier Club was Caxton's edition of Chaucer's " Canterbmy Tales," pub- lished in 1478, and the latest, Whittier's " Snow- bound," published in 1866. In this exhibition Sidney's " Arcadia," 1590, is the earliest book shown. MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888) ESSAYS IX CRITICISM. By Matthew Arnold, Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford. Lon- don and Cambridge: Macmillan & Co., 1865. 12mo, original cloth, uncut. $22.50 The First Edition. A Presentation copy with the following inscription in the handwriting of Matthew Arnold: "To Mrs. Lingen, with the au- thor's best regards, February 11th, 1865." In a letter to his mother, dated January 21, 1865, Matthew Arnold says: " My Essays are nearly printed, but they have taken a long time, and till I have finally got the Preface to stand as I like, I shall not feel that the book is off my hands. The Preface will make you laugh. I see the Nonconformist, Miall's paper, of all papers in the world, has this week an article on Provinciality, and speaks of me as ' a writer who, by the power both of his thoughts and of his style, is beginning to attract great attention.' And the new number of the Quarterly has a note speaking of my 'beautiful essay on Marcus Aurelius,' and urging me to translate Epictetus, so as to make him readable by all the world. So I think the moment is, on the whole, favorable for the Essays; and in going through them I am struck by the admirable riches of human nature that are brought to light in the group of persons of whom they treat, and the sort of unity that a book to stimulate the better humanity in us the volume has." The essays had previously appeared in various Reviews, and in the Cornhill Magazine. The first edition contained nine essays, but in the second edition of the volume, which did not appear imtil 1869, the preface was condensed, another essay added, and a few other changes made. Later, on March 3d, Matthew Arnold writes: "I hear my book is doing very well. The Spectator is very well, but the article has Hutton's fault of seeing so verj' far into a millstone. . . . The North British has an ex- cellent article, treating my critical notions at length and very ably. They object to my 'vivacities,' and so on, but then it is a Scotchman who writes. The best justification of the Preface is the altered tone of the Saturday." To Miss Arnold he wrote in November, 1865: "... I have had a good deal from America, and was therefore the more interested in reading what you sent me. The North American Review for July had an article on me which I like as well as anything I have seen. There is an immense public there, and this alone makes them of importance; but besides that, I had been struck in what I saw of them on the Continent in the last few months, both with their intellectual liveliness and ardour, with which I had before been willing enough to credit them, as one of the good results of their democratic regimes emancipating them from the blinking and hushing-up system induced by our circumstances here — and also with the good effect their wonderful success had produced on them in giving them something really considerable to rest upon, and freeing them from the necessity of being always standing upon their toes, crowing. . . ." PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: A NOVEL. JN THREE VOLUMES. BY THE AUTHOR OF " SENSE AND SENSIBILITY." VOL. I. Hontion: PRINTED FOR T. EGERTON^ MILITARY LIBRARY, >VHIT£H/U,L. 1S13. JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817) PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: A NOVEL. In Three Volumes. By the Author of " Sense and Sen- sibility." Vol. I. London: Printed for T. Egerton, Mihtary Library, Whitehall. 1813. 3 vols., l6mo, half crushed levant morocco, gilt top, iincut, by Stikeman. $125.00 Egerton published "Sense and Sensibility" in 1811, while "Pride and Prejudice" (originally named "First Impressions"), which had been iin- ished in August, 1797, was first offered by Miss Austen's father to Cadell, the famous publisher, in the following letter: " Sir — I have in my possession a manuscript novel, comprising 3 vols., about the length of Miss Burney's ' Evelina.' As I am well aware of what consequence it is that a work of this sort shd make its first appearance under a respectable name, I apply to you. I shall be much obliged, therefore, if you will inform me whether you choose to be con- cerned in it, what will be the expense of publishing it at the author's risk, and what you will venture to advance for the property of it, if on perusal it is approved of. Should you give any encouragement, I will send you the work. " Steventon, near Overton, Hants. "1st Nov., 1797." Cadell refused the book without reading it, and it was finally carried to Egerton, who accepted the story and made it into an attractive volume, although Gifford, who afterward read it for Murray with a view to pub- lishing " Emma," tells us that it was ". . . wretchedly printed, and so pointed as to be almost unintelligible." " Mansfield Park " and " Emma," like her two earlier novels, were issued anonjTnously during Miss Austen's lifetime. Though the author's name was an open secret, it did not appear in any of her books until the year after her death, when her brother, Henry Austen, announced it in a short biographical notice prefixed to " Northanger Abbey " and " Persuasion." One hundred and fifty pounds were received from the sale of " Sense and Sensibility," and less than seven hundred pounds from the sale of all four books issued before the two novels of 1818. The work, "Pride and Prejudice," "my own darling child," as Miss Austen called it, appeared in .January, 1813, and she says of it: "There are a few typographical errors ; and a ' said he,' or a ' said she,' would some- times make the dialogue more immediately clear; but I do not write for such dull elves ' as have not a great deal of ingenuity themselves. The sec- ond volume is shorter than I could wish, but the difference is not so much in reality as in look." A rather interesting story in regard to " Northanger Abbey " is that it was sold to a publisher in Bath for £10 in 1803. He was afraid to print it, fearing its failure, and was glad to take back his money and return the manuscript to one of her brothers a few years later, not knowing, till the bargain was complete, that the writer was also the author of four popular novels. SCENES DE LA VIE DE PROVINCE PAR M. DE BALZAC. premier volume. PARIS. MADAME CHARLES-BECHET, LIBRAIRE, tpjkl D£S AOGOSTinS, It. 5g. 1834. 8 HONORE de BALZAC (1799-1850) SCENES DE LA VIE DE PROVINCE PAR M. DE BALZAC. Premier volume. [Eugenie de Grandet.] Paris: Madame Charles-Bechet, Libraire, quai des Augustins N. 59, 1834. Svo, half crushed levant morocco, uncut, by Alio. $45.00 The First Edition, with the original paper covers preserved. Eugenie Grandet was written during the year 1833, and published late in December of that year or early in 1834. While at work on it Balzac wrote to his sister: " Ah ! there are too many millions in ' Eugenie Grandet ' ! But, you goose, since the story is true, would you have me do better than truth? " However, at the end of the year he wrote to Madame Carraud: " I can an- swer nothing to your criticisms, except that facts are against you. In Tours there is a man who keeps a grocer's shop who has eight million francs; M. Eynard, a mere peddler, has twenty millions; he had in his house thirteen millions in gold, he invested them in 1814, in government securities at 56 francs, and thus increased his thirteen millions to twenty millions. Nevertheless, in the next edition, I will make Grandet's fortune six millions less." On January 30, 1834, writing to the same: "You have been very little affected by my poor ' Eugenie Grandet,' which so well portrays provincial life; but a work which is to contain all social characters and positions can, I believe, be understood only when it is completed." The book brought immediate fame. So great was its success that Balzac feared the public would forget his other books: "Those who call me the father of ' Eugenie Grandet ' wish to belittle me. It is a masterpiece, I know, but it is a little masterpiece; they are very careful not to mention the great ones." " The pathos of Eugenie, the mastery of Grandet, the success of the minor characters, especially Nanon, are universally recognized. The im- portance of the work has sometimes been slightly questioned even by those who admit its beauty; but this questioning can only support itself on the unavowed but frequently present conviction or suspicion that a ' good ' or ' goody ' book must be a weak one. As a matter of fact, no book can be, or can be asked to be, better than perfect on its own scheme and with its own conditions. And on its own scheme and with its own conditions ' Eugenie Grandet ' is very nearly perfect." Saintsbury says: " The bibliography of the book is not complicated. Bal- zac tried the first chapter (there were originally seven) in L' Europe Lit- tiraire for September 19, 1833; but he did not continue it there, and it appeared complete in the first volume of Sctnes de la Vie Province next year. Charpentier republished it in a single volume in 1839. The Comedie engulfed it in 1843, the chapter divisions then disappearing." It remains one of the best known and most admired of all Balzac's novels. FRANCIS BACON, BARON VERULAM (1561-1626) THE TWOO BOOKES OF FRANCIS BA- CON. Of the proficience and aduancement of Learn- ing, diuine and humane. To the King. At London, Printed for Henrie Tomes, and are to be sold at his shop at Graies Inne Gate in Holborne. 1605. Small 4to, full crushed levant morocco, gilt on the rough, by Riviere & Son. $125.00 The Treatise on the Advancement of Learning, which was the germ of the Augmentis Scientiarum (pub. 1623), was published in 1605. "In this, indeed, the whole of the Baconian philosophy may be said to be im- plicitly contained, except, perhaps, the second book of the Novum Or- ganum." It must be remembered that the Advancement of Learning was pub- lished two years after James's accession to the English throne. Macaulay says, in his essay on Bacon: "James mounted the throne; and Bacon employed all his address to obtain for himself a share of the favor of his new master." This was no difficult task. Under the reign of James, Bacon grew rapidly in fortune and favor. In 1604 he was appointed King's Counsel, with a fee of forty pounds a year; and a pension of sixty pounds a year was settled upon him. In 1607 he became Solicitor-General, in 1612 Attorney-General. The absence of encouragement for scientific work, and the isolation of scientific workers, were disadvantages against which Bacon had to con- tend: and hence in the Advancement of Learning we shall find him advo- cating the endowment of readers in sciences and the provision of expenses for experiments, and by his last will attempting to supply this deficiency. He dislikes the religious controversies of the day, among other reasons be- cause they divert the minds of men from science, and in his earnest desire for a theological peace, he compares himself to the miller of Huntingdon, who prayed for peace among the willows that his water might have the more work. Doctor Samuel Collins, late Provost of King's College in Cambridge, affirmed that when he had read the book of the Advancement of Learning, he found himself in a case to begin his studies anew, and that he had lost all the time of his studying before. By the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, the errors of the Aristotelian philosophy were efPectually overturned on a plain appeal to the facts of nature; but it remained to show, on broad and general prin- ciples, how and why Aristotle was in the wrong; to set in evidence the peculiar weakness of his method of philosophizing, and to substitute in its place a stronger and better. This important task was executed by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, who will therefore justly be looked upon in all future ages as the great reformer of philosophy, though his own actual contributions to the stock of physical truths were small, and his ideas of particular points strongly tinctured with mistakes and errors, which were the fault rather of the general want of physical information of the age than of any narrowness of view on his own part; and of this he was fully aware. 10 WILLIAM BECKFORD (1709-1770) AN ARABIAN TALE. From an Unpublished Manuscript. With Notes Critical and Explana- toTY. London: Printed for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-vard. and Entered at the Stationers' Hall. MDCCLXXXVI. 12mo, full polished calf, gilt on the rough, by Riviere & Son. $27.50 The P'irst Edition of this noted book. WilUam Beckford came from a family of great wealth, and his early life was spent at Fonthill Abbey, one of the finest houses in the West of England. It was here that " Vathek " was written. The only authentic account directly from the author regarding this splendid and beautiful tale was made by him in 1835: "You will hardly credit how closely I was able to apply myself when I was young. I wrote ' \'athek ' when I twenty-two years old. I wrote it at one sitting and in French. It cost me three days and two nights of hard labour. I never took my clothes off the whole time. This severe applica- tion made me very ill." He goes on to say that he had revelled in the literature of the East for some time, preferring it to the classics of Greece and Rome. " I began it of myself as a relief from the dryness of my other studies. I was a much better Latin than Greek scholar. The Latin and Greek were set tasks; the Persian I began of my ovm accord." "Vathek" first appeared in print in 1784, the second year after it was written; and editions were published both in Paris and Lausanne, the latter in 1787. The English edition had for title " An Arabian Tale from an Unpublished ^IS., with Notes Critical and Explanatory, Lond., 1786." (Allibone.) Although Beckford stated that he did not know who made the English translation, it is now known to have been Dr. Samuel Henley. Indeed, a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine accused Henley of having translated the tale from the Arabian simply to exhibit his learning by writing the vohuninous notes. Henley replied that it was from a French original then unpublished. It is therefore supposed that Beckford allowed Dr. Henley to examine the manuscript, and that the latter published the English edition for his own benefit. It is interesting to note that this Samuel Henley began his career as Professor of Moral Philosophy at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va. At the opening of the Revolution he went to England. Later he became a great antiquarian and the Principal of Hertford College. Beckford spoke of the translation as " tolerably well done." The French edition, issued as we have noted in 1787, contained a preface explaining that, although originally written in French, an un- authorized English translation had already appeared. It is not easy to conjecture from whence Beckford took the machinery of this extraordinary story. Some of the characters were from exaggerated pictures of his own household. " I had to elevate, exaggerate, orientalize everything. I was soaring in my young fancy on the Arabian bird roc, among genii and enchantments, not moving "among men." Thus was this wonderful tale produced of which Byron wrote: "For correctness of costume, beauty of description, and power of imagination, it far surpasses all European imi- tations. As an Eastern tale even ' Rasselas ' must bow before it; his happy- valley will not bear a comparison with the ' Hall of Eblis.' " 11 COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES FRANCIS BEAVMONT Written by<; And J>Gcntlemcn. lOHN FLETCHER Neverprinred before. And now publifhed by the Authours Originall Copies, Si quid habent "veri Vatnin fr£jagia, vivam. LONDONy Printed for Humphrey Robinfen,n.t the three Pia^ww/, and for Humphrey MofeUy at the Princer ejirmes in S' Pauls Church.yard. I 6 4 7. 12 FRANCIS BEAUMONT (1584-1616) AND JOHN FLETCHER (1579-1625) COMEDIES AND TRAGEDIES. Written by Erancis Beavmont And lohn Fletcher, Gentlemen. Never printed before, And now published by the Authour's Originall Copies. [Quotation.] London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the three Pidgeons, and for Humplii-ey Moseley, at the Princes Aimes, in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1647. Folio Portrait by William Marshall, half calf, sprinkled edges. $250.00 The First Edition. These two dramatists, between whom " There was a wonderful consimility of phancy," were inseparably connected in their writings. No one collected edition of their plays appeared before their posthumous one, which is dedicated to Phihp, Earl of Pembroke, by ten actors, and is introduced to the reader by James Shirley, the dramatist, who speaks of the %olume as " without flattery the greatest Monument of the Scene that Time and Humanity have produced." This, too, notwith- standing the fact that Shakespeare's Works had appeared twenty-four years before. This edition appears to have been due to Moseley's enterprise, and noth- ing which throws light upon the history of printing at this time is more interesting than the Postscript added at the end of the Commendatory Verses. ". . . After the ' Comedies and Tragedies ' were wrought oflF, we were forced (for expedition) to send the Gentlemens Verses to severall Printers, %vhich was the occasion of their different Character; but the Worke itselfe is one continued Letter, which (though very legible) is None of the big- gest, because (as much as possible) we would lessen the Bulke of the Volume." This matter of size seems to have been the cause of no little solicitude and care. There are thirty-six plays in the collection: as the stationer tells us, in the preface to the reader, all those previously printed in quarto are included, except the ' Wild Goose Chase,' which had been lost. The following epigram by Sir Aston Cockain, addressed to the publishers, shows the difficulties arising from the joint authorship were early sources of perplexity: " In the large book of Plays you late did print (In Beaumonts and in Fletchers name) why in't Did you not justice? Give to each his due? For Beaumont (of those many) writ in few: And Massinger in other few: the Main Being sole issues of sweet Fletchers brain. But how come I (you ask) so much to know? Fletchers chief bosome-friend inform'd me so. 18 14 THE HOLY BIBLE THE HOLY BIBLE. [Two lines.] Newly trans- lated out of the Originall Tongues: and with the former Translations diligently compared and reissued bj^ his INIaiesties special Commandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most excellent jMaiestie. Aimo Dom. 1611. Folio, old calf, red edges, facsimile title, a few leaves margined, and 3 leaves supplied with pen facsimiles of missing letters. $100.00 The editio princeps of King James's Bible, commonly known as the authorized version. The idea of this new translation was first mooted by John Rainolds or Reynolds, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; the Puritan leader at the Hampton Court Conference, January, 1604. The king took up the proposal warmly, and its achievement was due to his royal interest and influence. The preliminary work was accomplished in about four years. The translators, who numbered about fifty, were divided into six companies, each company being responsible for a certain section of the Scriptures. Two companies met at Westminster, two at Cambridge, and two at Oxford; and at these centers the directors of the work were Lancelot Andrewes, then Dean of Westminster; Edward Lively, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge; and John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford. The results of their several labors were subjected to mutual criticism, and then underwent nine months' final revision by a representative committee of six members, sitting in London. The editors who passed the book through the press were Miles Smith, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, and Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester. The translators were directed to take the rendering of the Bishop's Bible as their basis, and were advised also to consult the following versions: Tindale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, AVhitchurch's (i. e. the Great Bible), and the Geneva. The last exerted very considerable influence on their work; and next to it the Rheim's New Testament — though not mentioned' — contributed appreciably to the changes introduced (The Douai Old Testa- ment appeared too late to be used). Few books present greater difficidties to the bibliogra])her than this, the first " Authorized," or " King James's Version of the Bible." Many copies bearing the same date, and seemingly alike, have distinct differences in the text, in the ornamental head-and-tail-pieces, and in the initial letters. But the most striking difference lies in two forms of the title-page. One of these, a copper-plate engraving, signed C. Boel fecit in Richmond, rep- resents an architectural framework, having large figures of Moses and Aaron in niches on either side of the border and seated figures of St. Luke and St. .John, with their emblems, at the bottom; above are seated figures of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and St. Peter and St. Paul holding the Agnus Dei, while behind them are various saints and martyrs. The name of Robert Barker, the printer, calls for more than a passing notice, since he it was who, more than anyone else after the forty-seven translators, was resjjonsible for the production of the authorized version. On January 3, 1599, the court of assistants of the Stationers' Comjiany recognized the letter patent of Queen I'Hizabeth, granting Robert Barker the reversion for life, after his father's death, of the office of Queen's Printer, with the right of printing J'lnglish Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, statutes and proclamations. 15 SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE (1723-1780) COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENG- LAND. Book the First. By William Blackstone, Esq. [Three hnes.] Oxford. Printed: At The Clar- endon Press. MDCCLXV. [-MDCCLXIX.] 4 vols., 4to, half calf. $35.00 The First Edition. In 1758 Blackstone began his lectures at Oxford as the first professor upon a new foundation. The subject of his lectures was new to the English universities, and the lectures attracted a very con- siderable amount of attention. He had formed the true conception of an institutional work which not merely should state the principles of existing law, but by means of the " learning out of use " should explain their growth. And so well did he carry out his plan that in the " Commentaries " there is still to be found the best general history of English law, needing comparatively little correction, and told with admirable clearness and spirit. Though his style lacks variety and restraint, but except amid the loose generalities of the introductory chapters, it is never obscure, and at its best it rises to considerable dignity. The story of this publication reminds one of Bacon's " orchard ill- neighbored," The author relates the circumstances in his preface: " For the truth is, that the present publication is as much the effect of necessity, as it is of choice. The notes which were taken by his hearers, haue by some of them (too partial to his favour) been thought worth reuising and transcribing, and these transcripts haue been frequently lent to others. Hence copies haue been multiplied, in their nature imperfect, if not errone- ous; some of which haue fallen into mercenary hands, and become the object of clandestine sale. Having, therefore, so much reason to appre- hend a surreptitious impression, he chose rather to submit his own errors to the world than to seem answerable for those of other men." The volumes were not all issued at once, but followed one another at different times during a period of four years. They were printed at the Clarendon Press, which Blackstone, when appointed a delegate in 1755, had " found languishing in a lazy obscurity," and whose quickening was in no small measure due to his " repeated conferences with the most eminent masters, in London and other places, with regard to the mechanical part of printing," his recommendations, and to his own examples of good typog- raphy supplied in the Magna Charta, published in 1758, and in this his magnum opus. The wonderful success of the work is attested by the number of its edi- tions. A second Wcis issued in 1768, and six more appeared before the author's death. From then, until now, it has been frequently reprinted. Blackstone is reputed to have received from the sale of the " Commentaries," and from his lectures, about £14,000. It has been said of Blackstone that " he was the first to make English law readable." He was also referred to " as at once the most available and the most trustworthy authority on the law of the 18th Century." On the Continent it is still quoted, but its greatest success has been in America, where it has been regarded as the book on English law. In Croker's Boswell we find a vignette of Blackstone: " He was both languid and hot-tempered. So languid was he that in writing the ' Com- mentaries ' he had to have a bottle of port near by to be invigorated and supported in the fatigue of his great work by a temperate use of it." 16 GEORGE BORROW (1803-1881) THE BIBLE IN SPAIN, OR THE JOUR- NEYS, ADVENTURES, AND IMPRISON- MENTS OF AN ENGLISHMAN. An Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula. By George Borrow, Author of " The Gypsies in Spain." In three volumes. Vol. I. London: Jolm Murray, Albemarle Street. 1843. 3 vols., 12mo, original cloth, uncut. $35.00 The First Edition, " Tiie Bible in Spain " was simply transcribed from Sorrow's voluminous letters to the Bible Society in England, commencing with the first he sent in November, 1835, and ending abruptly with his letter of May, 1839. The letters were written with considerable literary style, and entered into the most minute details of his wanderings and of his intercourse with the people with whom he came in contact. At the close of the year 1841 he managed to secure his original letters from the Bible Society. This was only done after considerable eflFort and persuasion. Mrs. Borrow took upon herself the task of copying out the letters, and they were then turned into a continuous narrative, and an episode or story added here and there. In January, 1842, the manuscript was in the hands of John Murray. It was published on December 10th of that year, although the date on the title-page is 1843. The first edition consisted of one thousand copies. Its success was immediate. There were six editions in England in the first seven months, and eight editions in four months in America. The Athe- noeiim said of it: "There is no taking leave of a book like this — a genuine book, and not one of those starved pieces of modern manufacture, in which the smallest possible quantity of thought and incident is spread over the largest possible surface." "If any of our readers should happen not to have read 'The Bible in Spain,' we advise them to read it forthwith. Though irregular, without plan or order, it is a thoroughly racy, graphic, and vigorous book, full of interest, honest and straightforward, and without any cant or affectation in it; indeed the man's prominent quality is honesty, otherwise we should never have seen anything in that strong love of pugilism, horsemanship, Gypsy life, and physical daring of all kinds, of which his books are full. He is a Bible Harry Lorrequer, a missionary Bamfylde Moore Carew, an Exeter Hall bruiser, a polyglot wandering gypsy. Fancy these incon- gruities, and yet George Borrow is the man who embodies them in his one extraordinary person ! " — Samuel Smiles, Brief Biof/raphies. Daniel Macmillan, the founder of the well-known firm of publishers, wrote to a friend: "Have you seen or heard anything of a strange man named Borrow, who has written a book called the ' Gypsies in Spain,' and the ' Bible in Spain ' ? They are most interesting books, and he is a most strange man. . . . Some of his statements about the priests have given great offence to the Dublin Review people, and they have made a fierce attack on poor Mr. Borrow, but he is a bold man, and can stand his own ground." 17 JANE EYRE. 0n ^utobCogtapfe. EDITED BY CURRER BELL. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. L LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., CORNHILL. 1847. 18 CHARLOTTE BRONTE (1816-1855) JANE EYRE. An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell. In Three Volumes. Vol. I. London: Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill. 184.7. 3 vols., original cloth, uncut, in a pull-off case. $150.00 The First Edition. Fortunately there is a very full account of the manner in which "Jane Eyre" came into existence and the amusing way in which it was brought before the public. The story is that Charlotte Bronte reproved her sisters for always creating beautiful heroines. " I will prove to you that you are wrong; I wUl show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours." Thus the start of the story. For three weeks she wrote almost incessantly, only stopping when fearful of illness. This was in 1846. It should be remembered that at this time, or rather in 1847, two novels by the Brontes had been accepted and were in press, and " The Professor " was going the rounds. On August 24th the following letter was sent to Smith, Elder & Co.: " I now send per rail a MS. entitled ' Jane Eyre,' a novel in three volumes by Currer Bell. I find I cannot prepay the carriage of the parcel, as money for that purpose is not received at the small station-house where it is left. If, when you acknowledge the receipt of the MS., you would have the goodness to mention the amount charged on delivery I will im- mediately transmit it in postage stamps. It is better in future to address Mr. Currer BeU, under cover to Miss Bronte, Haworth, Bradford, York- shire, as there is a risk of letters otherwise directed not reaching me at present. To save trouble, I enclose an envelope." "Jane Eyre" was accepted, and printed and published by October 16th, a remarkable feat. " To Smith, Elder & Co. " October 19, 1847. "Gentlemen: — The six copies of 'Jane Eyre' reached me this morning. You have given the work every advantage which good paper, clear type, and a seemly outside can supply; if it fails the fault will lie with the author — you are exempt. " I now await the judgment of the press and the public. " I am, gentlemen, yours respectfully, "C. Bell." The press did not do much toward promoting the sale. The author was unknown, and very little space was given to the book. By December people were reading it and talking about it, which is the best of adver- tisements. It was only when success seemed sure that Mr. Bronte was taken into the secret. By this time the entire reading world was trying to find out who " Currer Bell " was. The second edition appeared in January, 1848, with the dedication to Thackeray, who had written a letter of praise to the pub- lishers. The American sales were very large, and it was really due to the fact that rival publishers were seeking further books from the author of "Jane Eyre" that Charlotte Bronte was obliged to disclose her identity to her publishers. 19 JAMES BOSWELL (1740-1795) THE LIFE OF SAJVIUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. [Twelve lines.] In Two Volumes. By James Boswell, Esq. [Quotation.] Volume the First. London: Printed bv Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry. MDCCXCI. 2 vols.^ full sprinkled calf, uncut. $35.00 The First Edition. Boswell had published, in 1790, two speci- mens of his work: "The Celebrated Letter from Samuel Johnson, LL.D., to Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, now first published, with notes by James Boswell, Esq.," and " A Conversation Between His Most Sacred Majesty George III, and Samuel Johnson, LL.D., illustrated with observations by James Boswell, Esq." They were probably issued to secure the copyright, and sold for half a guinea apiece. The whole matter of jaublication of the Life was a source of no small worry to the author. He was plunged, at that time, in pecuniary difficulties due to the purchase of an estate for £2,500, and it seemed as if he might be obliged to accept the offer of Robinson, the publisher, of £1,000 for the copyright of his beloved book. " But it would go to his heart," he said, " to accept such a sum, which he considered far too low," and he avoided the difficulty by borrowing the money. All of these things made him very low spirited. " I am at present," he says, " in such bad spirits that I have fear con- cerning it — that I may get no profit, nay, may lose — that the public may be disappointed, and think that I have done it poorly — that I may make many enemies, and even have quarrels. But perhaps the very reverse of all may happen." He worked very hard over all the details connected with the making of the book. " I am within a short walk of Mr. Malone who revises my 'Life of Johnson ' with me. We have not yet gone over quite a half of it, but it is at last fairly in the press. I intended to have printed it upon what is called an English letter, which would have made it look better. I have therefore taken a smaller type, called pica, and even upon that I am afraid its bulk wlU be very large." He gave much thought to the title page and it was a long time before he could be perfectly satisfied with it. The work was at last delivered to the world May 16th (the " Advertise- ment " is dated April 20th), and was sold for two guineas a copy. So suc- cessful was it that by August 22d, 1,200 out of the edition of 1,700 copies were disposed of, and the whole edition was exhausted before the end of the year. A supplement was issued in 1793, at one guinea; and a second edition with eight additional sheets appeared in July of the same year. Lord Rosebery said in a recent address on Dr. Johnson: " I come to this conclusion, speaking always for myself alone, that Johnson's literary fame substantially survives in two supreme poems, the ' Lives of the Poets ' and the ' Dictionary,' but if these stood alone, remarkable as they are, we should not be assembled here to-day. I pass then to the most solid base, Boswell, and the figure which remains eternally resting on Boswell. . . . The book remains and is likely to remain unique because of the peculiar genius of the biographer. . . . From first to last the book is all good, there is not a dull page in it." The portrait of Dr. Johnson which forms the frontispiece to Vol. I is by Health, after Sir Joshua Reynolds. 20 SIR THOMAS BROWNE (1605-1682) RELIGIO MEDICI. Printed for Andrew Crooke. 1642. Will: Marshall, sen. 18mo, old calf with engraved title, by William Marshall. $125.00 The First Edition. One head-line cut into, and a little writing on title. This is thought to be the earlier of two anonymous editions pub- lished in the same year, and without the author's sanction, as we learn from the third edition published in the following year, entitled " A true and full coppy of that which was most imperfectly and surrepti- tiously printed before under the name of: ' Religio Medici.' In the pref- ace Browne says over his signature: '. . . I have at present represented into the world a full and intended copy of that Peece which was most im- perfectly and surreptitiously published before.' He repeats the complaint of surreptitious publication in a letter to Sir Kenelm Digby, in which he begs the latter to delay the publication of his ' Animadversions Upon the Religio ^Medici ' which ' the liberty of these times committed to the press.' " The famous " Religio Medici " was probably written in 1635 during Browne's residence at Shippen Hall. The author's manuscript was passed among his private friends, by whom frequent transcripts were made with more or less inaccuracy, and the original work had been so corrupted that the unauthorized editions " arrived in a most depraved copy from the press." The curious coincidence that all three editions, spurious and authorized, were issued by the same publisher, who used the engraved title-page by William Marshall for each, only changing the imprint, gave rise to the hypothesis that, if Sir Thomas did not authorize, he did not prevent the publications of the early editions. In fact. Dr. Johnson (though he professes to acquit him), favored the view "that Browne procured the anonymous publication of the treatise in order to try its success with the public before openly acknowledging the authorship." The effect of the work certainly justified any fears the author may have had. It excited much controversy and was placed in the " Index Expur- gatorius of the Roman Church." " But from the publisher's point of view, it was a great success. The emblematic fancy of Marshall has represented on the engraved title-page of this volume, a hand from the clouds catching a man to hinder his falling from a rock into the sea. The picture bears the legend " a coelo salus," which was afterward erased, not, we will hope, because of lack of faith in the sentiment expressed. The title was also erased from later editions. The book was made widely known among Continental scholars by John Merrweather's version. This was the Latin translation in 1644 from the 1643 edition. From an interesting letter (dated October 1, 1649) of Merryweather to Sir Thomas Browne, it appears that there was consider- able "difficulty in finding a publisher for the translation. In the first instance Merryweather offered it to a Leyden bookseller named Have, who submitted it to Salmasius for approbation. Salmasius kept it for three months, and returned it with the remark that " tiiere were indeed in it many things well said, but that it contained many exorbitant con- ceptions in religion, and would probably find but frowning entertainment especially among the ministers," so Haye refused to undertake the pub- lication." Finally after it had been offered in two other quarters it was accepted bv Hackius. 21 THE LIFEanci DEATH O F Mr. BADMAN, PRESENTED To the W o R L D ill a FAMILIAR E Mr. WISEMAN, Bet\veen. ^ w«* i i w w a L iw 22 JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688) THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BAD- JNIAN, Presented to the World in a Familiar Dialogue Between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive. By John Bmiyan, the Author of the " Pilgrim's Progress." Lon- don: Printed by J. A., for Nath. Ponder, at the Pea- cock in the Poultrey, near the Church. 1680. 18mo, original calf, enclosed in a morocco slip case. $250.00 The First Edition, excessively scarce. No copy of the first edition is recorded in " Book Prices Current." Bunyan's " 5lr. Badman," one of his most characteristic works, was published in 1680, and served as a foil to the " Pilgrim's Progress." It was published by Nathaniel Ponder, Bunyan's publisher for a period of some ten years, who was spoken of as an agree- able man with whom to have business dealings. Bunyan began work on " Mr. Badman " as soon as he had published the third edition of the " Pilgrim's Progress," and he considered it a complement or continuation of the latter: "As I was considering with myself what I had written concerning the Progress of the Pilgrim from this world to glory: and how it had been acceptable to many in this nation: it came again into my mind to write, as then of him that was going to Heaven, so now of the Life and Death of the Ungodly and of their travel from this world to HeU." Froude has given us an admirable sketch of the story: "It is extremely interesting merely as a picture of vulgar English life in a provincial town, such as Bedford was when Bunyan lived there. . . , Bunyan conceals nothing, assumes nothing, and exaggerates nothing ... a picture of a man in the ranks of English life with which Btmyan was most familiar, travelling along the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire." Canon Venables said of it: " One of Bunyan's most characteristic works . . . which, though now almost forgotten, and too disagreeable in its subject and its boldly drawn details to be altogether wholesome reading, displays Bunyan's inventive genius as powerfully as the universally popular ' Pil- grim ' of which, as Bimyan intended it to be, it is the strongly drawn con- trast and foil. ... As a portrait of rough English country-town life in the days of Charles II, the later book is unapproached, save by the un- savoury tales of Defoe." The " Life and Death of Mr. Badman " was followed two years later by the " Holy War," and later his lesser known works, " The Pharisee and the Publican," the Second Part of " The Pilgrim's Progress," and others. Bunyan's literary activity did not interfere with his preaching; and al- though " troublous times " fell upon the nonconformists in 1675, Bunyan disguised himself as a waggoner, and, with whip in hand, continued his journeys. Great crowds went to hear him in London, and it is said that as many as twelve hundred would gather on a weekday morning in win- ter to listen. He is described as " Strong-boned, of a ruddy face, his hair reddish, hut in his latter days well si)rinkled with gray, of a stern and rough temper, not given to lo(juacity, and never to boast of himself in his parts." This was the appearance of the man who has created the char- acters of "Mr. Worldly Wiseman," the "Giant Despair," the "Young Woman Whose Name Was Dull," and others whose vitality will never decay. S8 ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889) BELLS AND POMEGRANATES. No. 1— Pippa Passes. By Robert Browning. Author of " Paracelsus." London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXLI. 8vo, full dark blue crushed levant morocco with special tooling, gilt top, uncut, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. $175.00 The First Edition, bound from the eight original parts. In 1841 Robert Browning's publisher — Edward Moxon — proposed that some of his poems then in manuscript should be brought out in a cheap form. It was sug- gested that they might appear in monthly pamphlets, and the series could be continued or ended according to the manner in which the public received them. The general title " Bells and Pomegranates " was chosen for the series. Pippa Passes, which introduces the series, was the result of the sud- den image of a figure walking alone through life, which came to Browning in a wood near Dulwich. No. III. " Dramatic Lyrics " contained the poem of the " Pied Piper of Hamelin," which was written in May, 1842, to amuse W. C. Macready's little son William. The play, " A Blot on the 'Scutcheon " was written at the desire of Macready, and was first performed at Drury Lane on Feb. 11, 1843, though Macready did not act in it, and treated it rather shabbily. Browning gave the leading part to Phelps and the heroine was played by Helen Faucit. It was well received, but not well acted and had but a short run. The coolness between Macready and Browning lasted until 1862. " Colombo's Birthday " was read to the Keans in March, 1844, but was not acted until 1853, when Helen Faucit and Barry Sullivan produced it at the Haymarket. It was performed at the Harvard Athenaeum about the same time. Miss Barrett wrote to a friend: "Did you persevere with 'Bordello?' I hope so. Be sure that we may all learn (as poets) much and deeply from it, for the writer speaks true oracles. When you have read it through, then read for relaxation and recompense the last ' Bell and Pomegranate * by the same poet, his ' Colombo's Birthday,' which is exquisite. Only ' Pippa Passes ' I lean to, or kneel to, with the deepest reverence." She wrote to Browning advising that he give an explanation of the title, to which he answered : " I will make a note as you suggest or, perhaps, keep it for the closing number (the next), when it will come fitly in with two or three parting words I shall have to say. The Rabbis make Bells and Pomegranates symbolical of Pleasure and Profit, the gay and the grave, the Poetry and the Prose, Singing and Sermonizing — such a mixture of effects as in the original hour (that is quarter of an hour) of confidence and creation, I meant the whole should prove at last." In the final number Browning explained that he meant to indicate by this title " something like an alternation, or mixture of music with discoursing, sound with sense, poetry with thought." From 1841 to 1846 the numbers of " Bells and Pomegranates " appeared. The first one, containing " Pippa Passes," sold for sixpence, but the price was then raised to a shilling. These slight numbers contain some of Browning's finest poems. They were issued by Moxon in a large octavo, with yellowish-green covers. This series is the last of Browning's works in order of date that is excep- tionally difficult to procure. All of his works issued subsequent to 1846 are less rare, because his fame by that time being well assured, larger edi- tions of each of his works were published. 24 EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797) REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, [four lines] IN A LETTER IN- TENDED TO HAVE BEEN SENT TO A GEN- TLEMAN IN PARIS. By The Right Honorable Edmund Burke. London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall. MDCCXC. 8vo, original paper wrappers, uncut. $15.00 The First Edition. Burke was drawn into writing the " Reflections " by what seems almost an accident. The 4th of November was the anni- versary of the landing of the Prince of Orange, and the first act in the Revolution of 1688. There was, in London, an association which was linown as the Revolution Society. It was mostly composed of Dissenters, but had among its members some churchmen and a good many members of the House of Commons. This society met to hear a sermon especially pre- pared for this anniversary. The speaker was Dr. Price, who held up the French for admiration and praise as having carried the principles of the English Revolution to a loftier height, and as having broadened the view of all mankind. Burke's anger was so aroused by this that he went to work at once to denounce Dr. Price and his doctrines in a letter expressing his opinion of the Revolutionary movement in France. Thus were the " Reflections " originated. He was excited to a tremendous degree, and Each report from Paris only served to urge him on. It very soon got rumoured about that Burke was hard at work on a pamphlet, and the public interest was thoroughly aroused. Burke's own name, coupled with the subject of the Revolution, was sufficient to whet people's appetites for his book. However, he was not to be unduly hur- ried. He kept at work for an entire year, and was never content with what he had written. His changes on the proofs were so numerous and so drastic that the printer set up the entire work in fresh type. The book bound in an unlettered wrapper of gray paper was finally issued during November, 1790, and was sold at five shillings. The King [George HI] called it " a good book, a very good book ; every gentleman ought to read it." It passed through eleven editions or eighteen thousand copies, during the first year after publication, and a large sale continued for four or five years. The effect of the book was instantaneous and remarkable. All England was divided into two factions, and the interest spread to the Continent, and it is said that Louis XVI himself translated it into French. . In a famous passage Burke gives a glowing description of the young Queen Marie Antoinette, who he had seen first about 1773 when he had placed his son Richard at school at Auxerre. Horace Walpole said, in 1790: " Every page shows how sincerely he is in earnest— a wondrous merit in a political pamphlet. All other ])arty writers net zeal for the ))ul)lic, but it never seems to flow from the heart. That cordial, like a vial of sjurits, will preserve his book wlien some of his doctrines would have evaporated in fume." 25 ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796) POEMS CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DI- ALECT. By Robert Burns. The Third Edition. London: Printed for A. Strahan; T. Cadell in the Strand; And W. Creech, Edinburgh. MDCCL- XXXVII. 8vo, original sheep in a Solander case, portrait. $2,500.00 A copy with manuscript corrections by Burns. The Third Edition. London, 1787, is identical with the first Edinburgh edition, of which only three thousand copies were printed. In the poem " To a Haggis " the word " skinking " stanza 3, line 3, was corrected to " stinking." This copy contains the book-plate of the Rev. Thomas Quarles, A.M., and also the following corrections and emendations, which are entirely in Burns's handwriting: p. 47, Mauchline; p. 49, Kilmarnock; p. 50, Moodie (twice); p. 51, Smith; p. 52, Peebles-Miller; p. 54, Russell; p. 70, Ballantine; p. 71, Ballantine; p. 88, Kilmarnock-Begbies; p. 89, Oliphant-Russell-McKindlay; p. 91, Kilmarnock; p. 92, Glencairn-Robinson ; p. 93, Ayr-Netherton- MutrJe; p. 95, McKindlay-Russell ; p. 96, James Steven; p. 113, Jas. Smith-Smith; p. 152, Kilmarnock-Robinson; p. 153, Kilmarnock; p. 156, additional stanza to the poem entitled " Tam Samson's Elegy," as follows: Here low he lies in lasting rest. Perhaps upon his mould'ring breast Some spitefu' moorfowl bigs her nest. To hatch and breed: Alas, nae mair he'll them molest, Tam Samson's dead. p. 184, Robt. Aiken; p. 185, Aiken; p. 355, Logan; p. 368, Gavin Hamil- ton; p. 273, Kennedys-Hamilton; p. 283, John Lapraike; p. 295, Wm. Simpson; p. 305, John Rankine-Rankine; p. 343, Hood; p. 345, Robt. Aiken-Gavin Hamilton. These names supplied in ink by Burns were omitted from the published edition, owing to the personal nature of the poems. To the first Edinburgh edition was added twenty-two poems not pub- lished in the Kilmarnock edition. This volume was either Burns's own copy, or he had sent it to a friend for whom he had written the full names of all the persons and places marked with asterisks. The additional stanza to the poem " Tam Samson's Elegy " was not incorporated in any edition until many years after Burns's death. Tam Samson was a nursery gardener and seedsman in Kilmarnock and an ardent sportsman. He died the 13th of December, 1795, in his seventy- third year. The epitaph is engraved on his tombstone in the yard of the Laigh Kirk. It is a well-known fact that the first edition of Burns's " poems " was published in Kilmarnock, 1786, by John Wilson. Gavin Hamilton, one of Burns's warmest friends suggested this publication in order that the poet might get money enough to emigrate to Jamaica. It is stated that 612 copies were printed, 350 being subscribed for in advance. On August 28th of the same year, all but thirteen copies had been sold. In October a new edition of 1,000 copies was suggested to the printer, but he refused to proceed unless the poet advanced £37. As Burns did not die until 1796, the income from the sale of the first Edinburgh and the first London editions must have been considerable, although the actual facts are want- ing as to the sum realized. 26 JOSEPH BUTLER BISHOP OF DURHAM (1692-1752) THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED. [Six lines.] By Joseph Butler, LL.D., Rector of Stanhope, in the Bishoprick of Dur- ham. [Quotation.] London: Printed for James, John and Paul Knapton, at the Crown in Lud^ate Street. MDCCXXXVI. 4to, full panelled calf, sprinkled edges. $20.00 The First Edition. It was during the year 1736, soon after the ap- pointment of Butler in the household of the Queen that the " Analogy " was published. It came out in May, and a second edition followed in the same year, printed by the Knaptons, publishers of Butler's first printed volume, " Fifteen Sermons," 1726. It ran into edition after edition, and is reprinted even now. " Few productions of the human mind," AUibone tells us, " have elicited the labours of so many learned commentators as have employed their talents in the exposition of Butler's Analogy." He gives seventeen editions with commentaries, printed before 18.58. In recent times no less a name than that of Gladstone may be counted among the number. The Quarterly Revieir gave it a long and careful analysis: "A work too thoughtful for the flippant taste of the sceptical school, and, indeed, only to be appreciated after much and patient meditation. It is not a short line that will fathom Butler. . . . We have heard persons talk of the obscurity of Bishop Butler's style and lament that his book was not rewritten by some more luminous master of language. AVe have always sus- pected that such critics knew very little about the ' Analogy.' . . . Never was there a stronger instance of the truth of the observation, that it requires far more time to make a small book than a large one. . . . We look upon the ' Analogj' ' of Bishop Butler as the work above all others on which the mind can repose with the most entire satisfaction and faith found itself as on a rock." Dr. Butler said to a friend that his plan in writing the " Analogy " had been " to endeavor to answer as he went along every possible objection that might occur to anyone against any position of his in his book." Horace Waljiole wrote to Horace Mann: "The Bishop of Durham (chandler), another great writer of contro- versy, is dead, too, immensely rich; he is succeeded by Butler, of Bristol, a metaj)hysic author, much patronized by the late Queen; she never could make my father read his book, and which she certainly did not understand herself." Sydney Smith said: "To his Sermons we are indebted for the complete overthrow of the selfish system, and to his Analogy for the most noble and surj)rising defence of revealed religions, perhajjs, which has ever yet been made of any system whatever." As a moral philosopher Joseph But- ler may be entitled to the credit of founding the Scotch school, followed by Thomas Brown and later metaphysicians, both his Sermons and the Analogy were iriainly aimed at the theories of Hol)l)es, claiming that man is by nature more inclined to virtue than to vice. 27 H U D I B R A S THE FIRST PART. Written in the time of the late Wars. LONDON, Printed by 3^, G, for nicUrd Marrkt^ onder Saint DmBans Church in Fleet fireet. i66j. 28 SAMUEL BUTLER (1612-1680) HUDIBRAS. The First Part. Written in the Time of the Late Wars. [Device.] London: Printed by J. G., for Richard JNIarriot, under Saint Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street. 1663. 3 vols., l6mo and 12mo, full crushed levant morocco, gilt on the rough, by Riviere & Son. $300.00 Although " written in the time of the late Wars " " Hudibras " was not licensed to be printed until November 11, 1662, two years after the re- establishment of the monarchy, when a satire on Puritanism could no longer give offence to the ruling party. On the contrary, the satisfaction which it gave to the King and Court had much to do with the great success it achieved. Butler himself records the royal favor: " He never ate, nor drank, nor slept, But Hudibras still near him kept; Nor would he go to church or so, But Hudibras must with him go." Marriot, the successful publisher of Walton's " Angler," and some of Donne's books, issued the first part in three different forms: large octavo, small octavo, and duodecimo; the last two sizes being sold for a lower price than the former, to meet the popular demand for the work. Probably the best criticism of " Hudibras " is contained in Johnson's Life of Butler: " The poem of ' Hudibras ' is one of those compositions of which a nation may justly boast, as the images which it exhibits are domestic, the sentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar. We must not, however, suffer the pride which we assume as the countrymen of Butler to make any encroachment upon justice, nor appropriate those honours which others have a right to share. The poem of 'Hudibras' is not wholly English; the original idea is to be found in the history of ' Don Quixote"' ; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without disgrace. ... In forming the character of ' Hudi- bras,' and describing his person and habiliments, the author seems to labour with a tumultuous confusion of dissimilar ideas. He had read the history of the mock knights-errant, he knew the notions and manners of a Pres- byterian magistrate, and tried to unite the absurdities of both, however distant, in one personage. Thus he gives him that pedantic ostentation of knowledge, which has no relation to chivalry, and loads him with martial encumbrances that can add nothing to his civil dignity. ... If inexhaust- ible wit could give perpetual pleasure no eye coidd ever leave half read the work of Butler; for what poet has ever brought so many remote images so happily together? It is scarcely possible to peruse a page without find- ing some association of images that was never found before. " By the first paragraph the reader is amused, by the next he is de- lighted, and by a few more strained to astonishment. ... If the French boast the learning of Rabelais, we need not be afraid of confronting them with Butler." Wood describes Butler as "a boon and witty companion," especially among the company he knew well; and Aubrey writes of his appearance as a man of middle stature, strong set, high colored, a head of sorrel hair, a severe and sound judgment and a good fellow. 29 GEORGE GORDON NOEL, LORD BYRON (1788-1824) DON JUAN. Difficile Est Proprie Communia Dicere. Hor. Epist. ad Pison. London: Printed by Thomas Davison, Whitefriars. 1819-1824. 7 vols., 1 vol. 4-to and 6 vols. 8vo, full polished calf, gilt top, by Riviere. $115.00 The First Editions of this famous book. It was originally intended to issue this poem in 4to size, but after Cantos I & II were so made it was decided to change the form to 8vo. The set contains also the second issue of Cantos 1 & II. WhUe Bj^ron was able to produce his poetry with great rapidity he spent much time and care over " Don Juan." He began the first canto in the autumn of 1818, and he was still at work on a seven- teenth canto in the early part of 1823. The poem was issued in parts, though not at regular intervals, and the delay is partly accounted for by the discouragement and open disapproval of some of Byron's friends and the hesitation of his publisher. He writes to Moore under date of September 19, 1818: "I have fin- ished the first canto of a poem in the style and manner of ' Beppo,' en- couraged by the good success of the same. It is . . . meant to be a little quietly facetious upon everything." Shortly after the publication of the two first cantos he writes to Mur- ray: "You ask me for the plan of Donny Johnny. I have no plan — I had no plan, but I had or have materials. . . . You are too earnest and eager about a work never intended tcT be seriovis. Do you suppose that I could have any intention but to giggle and make giggle? — a playful satire, with as little poetry as could be helped, was what I meant." Later he wrote, also to Murray: " I had not quite fixed whether to make him end in Hell, or in an unhappy marriage, not knowing which would be the severest." The earlier issues of the first five cantos were doubly anonymous; the title-pages bore neither the author's name nor the publisher's. Byron anticipated trouble: " Methinks I see you [Murray] with a long face about ' Don Juan,' anticipating the outcry and the scalping reviews that will ensue; all that is my affair. Why, Man,, it will be nuts to all of them; they never had such an opportunity of being terrible; but don't you be out of sorts. ... I am particularly aware that ' Don Juan ' must set us all by the ears, but that is my concern, and my beginning: there will be the Edinburgh and all too against it, so that, like Rob Roy, I shall have my hands full." Walter Scott reviewed it in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, saying that the author " has embraced every topic of human life, and sounded every string of the divine harp, from its slightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding tones." Shelley wrote to Byron : " Nothing has ever been written like it in Eng- lish, nor, if I may venture to prophesy, will there be, unless carrying upon it the mark of a secondary and borrowed light." In direct contrast to this we have Moore's frank opinion: "The most painful display of the versatility of genius that has ever been left for succeeding ages to wonder at or deplore." One critic spoke of it as " the Odyssey of Immorality." 30 LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON) (1832-1898) ALICE'S ADVENTURES IX WONDER- LAND. By Lewis Carroll. With Forty-two Illustra- tions by John Tenniel. London: ^lacmillan & Co., 1866. The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved. 12mo, full crushed levant morocco, gilt edges, by Riviere & Son. ' $75.0G The First Edition, with original covers preserved. In " Lewis Carroll's " diary, under date of July 4, 1862, there appears this entry: " I made an expedition up the river to Godstow with the three Liddells; we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Christ Church till half-past eight." To this note he added later: "On which occasion I told them the fairv-tale of ' Alice's Adventures Underground,' which I undertook to write ' out for Alice." This was the first title. Later he used " Alice's Hour in Elfland," and it was not until June 18, 1864, that he came to a final decision. It seems certain that the manuscript was shown to many friends, among whom was George Macdonald, who persuaded the author to submit his fairy story to a publisher. An illustrator was secured in the person of Sir John Tenniel. On July 4, 1865, exactly three years after the row up the river, ^Miss Alice Liddell received the first presentation copy of " Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." The first edition consisted of two thousand copies, which were more than the author hoped to dispose of. However, " Alice," instead of proving a loss, as had been predicted, brought in a considerable income each year. In its final form it was prac- tically the same story as when told in the boat. The whole idea was a sudden inspiration. One story associated with " Lewis Carroll " tells of a visit to Whitly. He had gathered some children around him, and was telling them a charming story of sea-urchins and Ammonites. The mother of one of the children, who overheard part of the story, said at the end: " You must be the author of ' Alice's Adventures.' He laughed, but looked astonished and said: "My dear Madam, my name is Dodgson, and 'Alice's Adventures ' was written by Lewis Carroll." However, after a little spar- ring, he admitted the truth. It was this dual nature which surprised so many people; the Dodgson of the books of logic and mathematics and the " Lewis Carroll " of the fairy stories. The story is told of Queen Victoria that on reading " Alice in Wonderland " she was so delighted with it that she gave orders that all the books written by the same author were to be sent her. She re- ceived, much to her surprise, a collection of treatises on P'uclid, Quater- nions and other abstruse mathematical problems. PVoni 18,55 to 1881 " Lewis Carroll " held the position of mathematical lecturer at Christ Church, Ox- ford. This office was an easy one, and allowed him great freedom for his own studies. He was, for many years, almost a recluse, known to very few people at Oxford. Only once in a while did he visit London, and then it was usually to take some child to the theatre. He went to Eastbourne summers, and to his own home at the Christmas holidays. He lived to see a German translation of " Alice," but would probably l)e somewhat surprised to know that "chortle" had found its way into the New English Dictionary. He has had many imitators, but few, if any, equals as a teller of nonsense stories. 31 GEORGE CHAPMAN (1559-1634.) THE WHOLE WORKS OF HOMER; PRINCE OF POETTS IN HIS ILIADS, AND ODYSSES. Translated according to the Greeke. By Geo. Chapman. De Ih: et Odiss. Omnia ab, his: et in his sunt onrnia sive beati Te decor eloquij, seu rern pon- dera tangmit. Angel: Pol: At London printed for Nathaniell Butter. William Hole sculp. Folio, 3 parts in 1 vol., full calf. $300.00 The First Edition, wanting the engraved titles to the " Odyssey " and " Battle of Frogs." This is the first edition with the portrait of Chapman (dated 1616) on the reverse of the title, and containing for the first time the fine engraved plate to the memory of Prince Henry. Though Butter was the publisher of Dekker's " Belman of London," and, with John Busby, of Shakespeare's " Lear," he is chiefly to be remembered for two things, for his success as a compiler and publisher of pamphlets of news — a success which entitles him to the place of father of the London press — and for his connection with Chapman. In 1609 (?) Samuel Macham brought out, in small folio form, "Homer, Prince of Poets, in twelve bookes of his " Iliads," embellished with an engraved title-page by William Hole, who was one of the earliest English engravers on copper-plates. Inflated with his subject, the artist crowded the title into a small central panel the better to present his conception of Vulcan, ApoUo, Achilles, Hector, and Homer, in a composition which, if topheavy, was more dignified and better drawn than many of the borders ascribed to him. LTnder date of April 8, 1611, we find in the Stationers' Register that Butter " Entered for his copy by consente of Samuell Masham, a booke called Homer's " Iliads " in English contayning 24 bookes." With his right to print, he also received the right to use the Hole frontispiece, which he had reengraved on a larger scale for the new book. The date of issue is not given, but it could not have been later than November 6, 1612, the date of the death of the Prince of Wales, to whom the book is dedi- cated, and it was probably published soon after the date of copyright. The printer's name is also lacking; but reasons exist for thinking that more than one worked on the book, and that there were several issues. There are copies whose signatures agree with those of the volumes of our issue, but these are printed with difi'erent type, on poorer paper, and the initial letters and other ornaments are of a much cruder sort. After Chapman had published his translation of the " Iliad," he turned his attention to the " Odyssey," and, as in the case of the " Iliad," he went to press with half of it first. Butter being the publisher. The volume ends with the words " finis duodecim libri Hom. Odyss. Opus nouem dierum," and begins with one of the most charming and perfect title- pages of the period, the greater pity therefore that it is unsigned. Its composition shows the poet in the midst of a company of laurel-crowned spirits, whose ethereal forms are expressed in stipple, with legends which read : " Solus sapit hie homo, Reliqui vero," and " Umbrae mouentur." Above, the title is supported by two cupids, and below are seated figures of Athena, and Ulysses with his dog. The whole plate was delicately drawn. 82 CHARLES I (1600-1649) EIKOX BASILIKE. THE POURTRAIC- TURE OF HIS SACRED MAIESTIE IN HIS SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS. Rom. 8. More then Conquerour, etc. Bona agere, & mala pati, Regiimi est. M.DC.XLVIII. l6mo, full crushed levant morocco, gilt on the rough. $15.00 " Eikon Basilike," or the king's book, is written in the first person, and while displaying Charles Ist's piety sets forth an explanation of his policy. Charles II, is said to have remarked to Gaudens that if it had come out a week earlier it would have saved his father's life. It was issued in twenty-eight sections, as: (1) Upon his Majesty's calling the last parlia- ment. (2) Upon the Earl of Strafford's death, and so forth, giving as from the king's own lips a popular interpretation of his actions, each sec- tion ending with a strain of prayer. The Marquis of Hertford said after its pubhcation that Charles had not wished the book to be issued as his own, but it was argued that Cromwell and others of the army having a great reputation with the people for piety, it would be best to issue it in the king's name. The authorship was disputed at the time, and even yet it is believed by many bibliographers to be the work of Bishop Gauden, the king's chaplain. He attempted to prove his authorship about 1661, which resulted in the following amusing letter from Lord Clarendon: "The particular which you often renewed, I do confesse was imparted to me under secrecy, and of which I did not take myself to be at liberty to take notice; and truly, when it ceases to be a secret, I know nobody will be gladde of it but Mr. MUton. I have very often wished I had never been trusted with it." In the sale of the library of the Marquis of Anglesea, a private note was foimd in his copy of " Eikon Basilike," saying that when in 1675 he was showing Charles II and the Duke of York the manuscript of the work, with corrections in their father's hand, they assured him " that this was none of the king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter." A few hours after the execution of Charles the First, his book was in the hands of the people, and so marvelous was its effect that contemporary authorities declare that nothing but the government's ingenious and per- sistent condemnation of the work prevented an immediate restoration of the monarchy. Those engaged in the publication were hunted down and imprisoned; but, in spite of every obstacle, the anxiety of the Cavaliers to possess copies of this touching memorial was so great, and the persever- ance of the printers so determined, that the work was newly put in type over and over again and published with a rapidity that has never to this day been equalled. Fresh editions appeared almost daily at first, and afterwards every week for a time numerous modern editions and facsimiles have been published. At the time of its appearance, and subsequently, the Eikon was spoken of as " The King's Book." The natural assumjition is that the king wrote it. The contrary has certainly not been proved. A touching pathos and simple dignity pervade ever}' chapter. In reading these meditations the king's subjects instantly recognized the stamp of the king's own char- acter in every page. Hinging through every chapter there is a vein of calmness and i)atience, preeminently characteristic of Charles the First. 33 A T A L A, OU LES AMOURS D E DEUX SAUVAGES DAKS X.£ I>£S£B.T; Par PivANcais-AuousTE* CHATEAUBRIAND. A PARIS, MiGVERET, Imprimeur, rut Jacob, N.° 1186; Cliez delaLoi, N." 2S8 ^ Etkrancienne LibrairiedpDopOKT, ^ rue d( AN IX. (iBol.) 34 FRANCOIS RENE-AUGUSTE CHATEAUBRIAND (1768-1848) AT ALA, OU LES AMOURS DE DEUX SAU- VAGES DANS LE DESERT; PAR FRANCOIS — AUGUSTE CHATEAUBRIAND. A Paris: Chez Migneret, Imprimeur, Rue Jacob, No. 1186, et a I'Ancienne Libraire de Dupont, Rue de la Loi, No. 288. An. IX. (1801.) 18mo, full crushed crimson levant morocco, gilt on the rough, by Hardy-Mennil. $30.00 The First Edition, witVi the book-plate of C. Jolly Bavoillot, designed by Giacomelli. In 1790 Chateaubriand came to America on an appoint- ment from the government, the purpose of the trip supposedly to find the Northwest Passage. This he apparently made no attempt to do. He was able to travel over a considerable amount of territory, and saw the great lakes and portions of the West and Florida. This life in America, and his meetings with various Indian tribes, inspired his " Natchez," " Rene," and " Atala." The latter is the story of a young Indian girl of that name who is in love with Chactas, an Indian who is held captive by her tribe, by whom the story is told. She has become a Christian, and has taken oaths of perpetual virginity. The story was published in 1801, had an immedi- ate success, and was translated into nearly all the European languages. Its publication marks the beginning of the French Romantic school, and the author was recognized as the literary glory of his age. The story lacked reality, and the picture of Indian life was wildly im- probable, but it appealed to the people of the period, and extorted from Europe a general exclamation of surprise and admiration. The turbulent times of the French Revolution affected Chateaubriand materially. As a noble he was expatriated, and he sought refuge in Lon- don, supporting himself by the precarious life of a teacher of French, and working at a pitiful salary in a bookseller's shop. Suifering hunger, not used to labor with his hands, it was only natural that his spirit should break under the strain; he lost faith, and while crouching under the succes- sive blows of misfortune wrote his " Essai Historique, Politique et Morale siir les Revolutions Ancienncs," influenced by the opinions of Voltaire, and the prevailing scepticism. An enterprising publisher printed it, but it was scarcely noticed until later when the author became famous. It was re- printed many times without his consent, for by that time his belief in the goodness of things and his faith had returned, and when he at last did pub- lish a new edition himself it was with notes pointing out the errors. When the decree of exfjulsion was annulled, Chateaubriand returned to France, where he soon obtained a position as Editor-in-Chief of Le Mercure Fran- ^oise. " Atala " first ajijieared in its pages. It was re])rinted surrepti- tiously in this edition immediately on its conclusion, without the author's consent. I>ater he published a continuation, when he had abandoned his first idea of making it merely an episode in his great poem, " Les Natchez." 35 EARL OF CHESTERFIELD (PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE) (1694-1773) LETTERS WRITTEN BY THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, TO HIS SON, PHILIP STANHOPE, ESQ., LATE ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AT THE COURT OF DRESDEN: TOGETHER WITH SEVERAL OTHER PIECES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. Published by Mrs. Eugenia Stanliope, from the Originals now in her possession. In Two Vol- umes. Vol. I. London: Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall MaU. MDCCLXXIV. 2 vols., 4to, frontispiece portrait, original boards, uncut. $37.50 The First Edition. The Letters were written by Lord Chesterfield to his illegitimate son, Philip Stanhope. They were written to a special person, and with a special purpose; they were never intended to serve as a code of morality, but rather form an elementary text-book of diplomacy. The boy was everything that his father deplored. He was awkward, uncouth; proficient in most studies, but lacking in knowledge of human nature. The letters were not intended for the eyes of the public, but were issued after Lord Chesterfield's death. They met with severe censure from Dr. Johnson, who said, however, that " leaving out the immorality the Letters might be made a very pretty book which should be put into the hands of every young gentleman." Horace Walpole writes: "The work is a most proper book of laws for the generation in which it is published, and has reduced the folly and worthlessness of the age to a regular system." He sums it up as " the whole duty of man adapted to the meanest capacities." He also says that Chesterfield " was sensible what a cub he had to work on, and whom two quartos of licking could not mould, for cub he remained to his death." Mrs. Delaney writes: "I am not at all surprised that you should be en- tertained with Lord Chesterfield's Letters and approve of many of them, but I am afraid as you go on his duplicity and immorality will give you as much offence as his indiscriminating accusation does the ladies. Those who do not deserve his lash despise it, and conclude he kept very bad com- pany. Those who are conscious they deserve his censure will be piqued but silent." She also described the book as " A melody of sense, knowl- edge of the world, attention to the minutest articles of good breeding, en- tertainment, satire, and immorality, and not a few inconsistencies: for at the same time he recommends decency of behaviour and avoiding all low vices, he recommends everything that can shake the foundation of virtue and religion, though at times he mentions both as necessary." At the time of his death, in 1773, Lord Chesterfield was known only as the author of two numbers of " The World " and other brief productions, which were published under the title of "Miscellanies" in 1777. His son had died in 1768. From the time of the publication these letters have been admired for the beauty of their style, and prized for the knowledge of the world which thev displav. 36 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) CHRISTABEL: KUBLA KHAN, A VISION; THE PAINS OF SLEEP. By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. London: Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, by William Bulmer & Co., Cleveland Row, St. James's. 1816. 8vo, original brown paper wrappers, uncut. $18.00 The First Edition, with the 4 pages of advertisements. When Words- worth and Coleridge were planning the joint volume of "Lyrical Ballads," Coleridge had under way his " Ancient Mariner," the " Dark Ladie," and " Christabel." Of these only the " Ancient Mariner " appeared in the pub- lished volume. " Christabel " remained in manuscript form until 1816, when the first and second parts were published together with " Kubla Khan " and the " Pains of Sleep." There were three parts of Christabel yet to come, which Coleridge hoped to finish within a year, but they never ap- peared. Coleridge, writing to his wife, April 4, 1803, says: " To-day I dine again with Sotheby. He had informed me that ten gentlemen who have met me at his house desired him to solicit me to finish the 'Christabel,' and to permit them to publish it for me; and they en- gaged that it should be in paper, printing and decorations the most mag- nificent thing that had hitherto appeared. Of course I declined it. The lovely lady shan't come to that pass ! Many times rather would I have it printed at Soulby's on the true ballad paper. However, it was civil, and Sotheby is very civil to me." It was in 1816 that Coleridge took up his residence with the Gillmans, arriving with the proof-sheets of " Christabel " in his hand. Charles Lamb has recorded this episode: "Coleridge is printing 'Christabel' by Lord Byron's recommendation to Murray, with what he calls a vision, Kubla Khan, which said vision he repeats so enchantingly that it irradiates and brings heaven and Elysian bowers into my parlour while he sings or says it . . . his face when he repeats his verses hath in its ancient glory, an Archangel a little damaged." Murray paid Coleridge eighty pounds for the copyright with the under- standing that if "Christabel" were completed the copyright should revert to Coleridge. The volume was well received b}^ the public, and a second edition was soon required. The reviews for the most part criticised it severely, and Coleridge was much hurt by the notice in the Edinburgh Review which he thought was written by Hazlitt. This said that " Christa- bel " was " utterly destitute of value, exhibiting from beginning to end not one ray of genius." One must not pass over this book without giving a quotation from the voluble Dibdin on the merits of its printer and his press, " The Shakespeare Press." " Trivial as the theme may appear," says he, " there are some very reasonable folks who would prefer an account of this eminent press to the History of the vSeven Years' War, and I frankly own myself to be of that number. Nor is it — with due reference be it said to William Bul- mer & Co. — from the least admiration of the exterior or interior of this printing-office that I take up my jK-n in behalf of it; but because it has effectually contributed to the j)ronu)tion of belles-lettres, and national im- provement in the matter of puncheon and matrix." 37 4(}2[li9 WILLIAM COLLINS (1721-1759) OUES ON SEVERAL DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORIC SUBJECTS. By WiUiam Collins. [Quotation.] Vignette. London: Printed for A. Mil- lar, in the Strand. M.DCC.XLVII. Price, One Shil- ling. 8vo, full green crushed levant morocco, gilt edges by Riviere & Son. $85.00 The First Edition. William Collins was born at Chichester on Christmas Day, 1721. His father, who was a hatter, was then Mayor of Chichester. The boy was educated at Winchester and Oxford, and early determined to devote himself to literature. When only eighteen his verses had ajipeared in the Gentleman's Magazine. In 1746 Collins and his friend, Joseph Warton, the critic, both at the time unknown, proposed to issue a volume of poems together: "Collins met me in Surrey, at Guildford races, when I wrote out for him my odes, and he likewise communicated some of his to me; and, being both in very high spirits, we took courage and resolved to join our forces and to publish them immediately." The plan, however, fell through and they finally pub- lished separately, though almost simultaneously. This work, though dated 1747, really appeared in December, 1746. " Warton's Odes on Various Subjects," London, 1746, reached a second edition. Collins's book, however, was not a success and having purchased the unsold copies of the first edition from the booksellers he set fire to them with his own hand, as if to revenge himself on the apathy and ignorance of the public. From this melancholy j^eriod of his life his insanity is supposed to have dated. Mit- ford states that Collins's work was so little known that Goldsmith dared to " lift " whole lines and passages and use them as his own. " Each," wrote Gray, " is the half of a considerable man, and one the counterj^art of the other. The first [Warton] has but little invention, very poetical choice of expression and a good ear. The second [Collins] a fine fancy modelled upon the antique, a bad ear, great variety of words and images with no choice at all. They both deserve to last some years, but will not ! Prob- ably the final word on Collins has been pronounced by Swinburne: " In the little book of Odes which dropped a still-born immortal from the press, and was finally burned up even to the last procurable copy by the hands of its author in a fever-fit of angry despair, there was hardly a single false note; and there were not many less than sweet or strong. There was, above all things, a purity of music, a clarity of style, to which I know of no parallel in English verse from the death of Andrew Marvell to the birth of William Blake. Here, in the twilight which followed on the splendid sunset of Pope, was at last a poet who was content to sing out what he had in him — to sing and not to say, without a glimpse of wit or a flash of eloquence." The vignette on the title-page, representing a pan-pipe and harp surrounded by a wreath of fruit, laurel, oak, and palm, \vith heads of Pan and Apollo at the top, is by Gerard Van der Gucht. Thin wood-cut head-bands at the beginning of some of the odes, and a tail-piece after the first one, furnish all the ornament for this pathetic volume. 38 WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800) JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807) OLNEY HYMNS. In Three Books. Book I. On Select Texts of Scripture. Book II. On Occa- sional Subjects. Book III. On the Progress and Changes of the Spiritual Life. Motto. London: Printed and Sold by W. Ohver, No. 12 Bartholomew- Close; Sold also by J. Buckland, No. 57 Pater-Noster Row; and J. Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Churchyard. MDCCLXXIX. 18mo, full black morocco, sprinkled edges. $10.00 The First Edition, containing, for the first time, such well-known hymns as: "Oh! for a Closer AValk with God," "Come my Soul Thy Suit Pre- pare," " Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," " There is a Fountain Fill'd With Blood," and many others equally familiar. This collection of hymns was published in 1779, and they have had a wide circulation and a great and lasting popularity. Cowper con- tributed 68 pieces, and the remaining 280 were by the Rev. John Newton, who had been the curate of Olney and one of the great influences in Cow- per's life. Newton was a remarkable man. The son of a sea captain he had himself commanded a slave ship, and in many voyages to different parts of the world had studied constantly to perfect himself for the min- istry. He took Holy Orders, and became a rather conspicuous member of the church. As curate at Olney he filled the church to overflowing, and had a great number of services. He used Cowper as a sort of lay-curate and worker in parish affairs. Cowper took part in prayer-meetings, vis- ited the sick, and was constant in his attendance at the many services. Newton's kindness was unfailing during the long years of Cowper's ill- health and suicidal mania, however injudicious may have been some of his modes of guidance. It was at this time that Cowper sought relief in keeping the hares which he has immortalized. Newton had, howe%'er, the reputation of preaching people mad, and Southey gives some facts which tend to justify the reputation. His influence upon Cowper has been dif- ferently estimated by biographers according to their religious preposses- sions. The facts are wanting which will enable any one to say positively whether Cowper's mind was healthily occupied or overwrought under New- ton's guidance. The friendship was a lifetime one. Newton, if stern, was a man of sense and feeling. It seems probable, however, that he was in- sufficiently alive to the danger of exciting Cowper's weak nerves. In later years Cowper's letters, though often playful, laid bare to Newton alone the gloomy despondency which he concealed from other correspondents. New- ton was, in fact, his spiritual director, and Cowper stood in some awe of him, though it does not seem fair to argue that the gloom was caused by Newton because revealed to him. The publication of the Olney Hymns was considered and completed be- fore Newton left Coleridge's home, and he continued to encourage Cowper in publishing "The Task" and other well-known writings. 39 THE ASK, P O E M, IN SIX BOOKS. Bv WILLIAM COWPER, OP THB INNBR TXMPLE, ESQ^. Fit furculus arbor. To which arc added, BY THE SAMB AUTHO?, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Efq. Tirocinium, or a Review oi" Schools, and the History of John GiLFitJ. LONDON) PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, N" 72, «T. PAUi-'S C H V R C H-y AR D. 1785- 40 WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800) POEMS. By WilHam Cowper, of the Inner Tern- pie. [Quotation.] London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Churchyard, 1782. 2 vols., ISmo, full sprinkled calf, yellow edges, by Bedford. $75.00* The First Edition, containing the book plate of William Gott. In Oc- tober, 1784, WUliam Cawthorne Unwin, " A friend whose worth deserves as warm a lay As ever friendship penned," received from Cowper " four quires of verse " with the request that it might be read by him and, if approved, conveyed to Joseph Johnson, the publisher of Cowper's first volume. "If, when you make the offer of my book 'The Task' to Johnson, he should stroke his chin, and look up at the ceiling and cry, ' Humph ! an- ticipate him, I beseech you, at once by saying that you know I should be sorry that he should undertake for me to his own disadvantage, or that my volume should be in any degree pressed upon him.' I make him the offer merely because I think he would have reason to complain of me if I did not. But, that punctilio once satisfied, it is a matter of indifference to me what publisher sends me forth." Johnson, however, accepted. The book appeared in June, having now grown into a volume of poems, containing, as the title-page shows, four works, paged continuously. It cost four shillings, in boards. The volume was a great success, and two issues were made in the same year. These show several variations, but chiefly in the arrangement of the pages. A half-title, found in some cop- ies, and thought to belong only to late issues, reads: " Poems, By William Cowper, Esq., Vol. II." Herein we may possibly see Johnson's afterthought to make the book a second volume to the collection of " Poems " issued in 1782, and referred to in the advertisement on the last page: "Lately published by the same Author, in one volume of this size. Price 4s. sewed." It would have been a shrewd plan thus to make the successful later vol- ume carry the unsuccessful earlier one. Of these two volumes of Poems, the second is the more famous, as it contains [beginning on page 343] " The Diverting History of John Gil- pin," which occupies nine leaves. There was some discussion between the poet and the publisher as to the proi)riety of putting poems so different in character into the same volume. Johnson at first advised against including " John Gilpin," to which the poet consented. Of this Cowper writes: "Nothing more passed between us on the subject, and I concluded that I should never have the immortal honor of being generally known as the author of ' John Gilpin.' In the last packet, however, down came John, very fairly ])rinted, and cquip])ed for i)ublic appearance. The business having taken this turn, I concluded that Johnson had adopted my original thought, that It might prove ad- vantageous to the sale; and as he had had the trouble and expense of printing it I corrected the copy and let it pass." 41 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN (1809-1882) ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. [Four lines.] By Charles Darwin, M.A. [Three lines.] London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1859. The Right of Translation is Reserv^ed. 12mo, full dark green crushed levant morocco, gilt top uncut, tooled with an elaborate design representing various animals, by Wood, in a slip-case. $27.00 The First Edition. The first rough sketch of Darwin's theory of the idea of natural selection was written out in thirty-five pages as far back as lSi2. In 1844 this had been enlarged to a fuller sketch of 230 pages where his theory of evolution was completely given. His correspondence of this period with Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Charles Lyell, and Dr. Asa Gray, cover a host of points in connection with his experiments with seeds, birds, and the lower orders. Finally, at the urgent advice of Lyell he determined to write out the results, though to finish the book at all was almost a greater strain than he could bear. However, on September 11, 1859, he corrected the last proof sheet. Darwin's views on the success of his book are worth recording. To Mur- ray he writes, April 5, 1859: "It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original. If you think otherwise, I must repeat my request that you will freely reject my work; and though I shall be a little disappointed, I shall be in no way injured." And again to J. D. Hooker: ". . . Please do not say to any one that I thought my book ' Species ' would be fairly popular, and have a fairly remunerative sale (which was the height of my ambition), for if it proves a dead failure it would make me the more ridiculous." The first edition, a " child," Darvidn calls it, in whose appearance he takes infinite pride and pleasure, was published November 34th. " It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from the first highly successful. The first small edition of 1,250 copies was sold on the day of publication, and a second edition of 3,000 copies soon afterward. Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold in England, and, considering how stiflF a book it is, this is a large sale. It has been translated into almost every European tongue, even into such languages as Spanish, Bo- hemian, Polish, and Russian. It has also, according to Miss Bird, been translated into Japanese [a mistake], and is there much studied. Even an essay in Hebrew has appeared on it, showing that the theory is contained in the Old Testament!" The second edition of 3,000 copies, only a reprint, yet with a few im- portant corrections, was issued January 7, 1860. An edition of 2,500 copies was issued in the United States, where it enjoyed great popularity. "I never dreamed," said he, " of my book being so successful with general readers; I believe I should have laughed at the idea of sending the sheets to America." The sura of £180 was received by the author for the first edition, and £636. 13. for the second. Darwin is described as tall and thin, with a ruddy face and blue-gray eyes under deep overhanging brows and bushy eyebrows. His high fore- head was much wrinkled, but in other respects his face was not lined or marked. His frame was naturally strong and fitted for activity. 42 ALPHONSE DAUDET (1840-1897) SAPHO, MCEURS PARISIENNES. Paris: G. Charpentier et Cie, Editeurs, 13 rue de Grenelle, 13, 1884. Tous droits reserves. 12mo, half cloth, uncut, with origmal paper covers preserved. $10.00 The First Edition. Alphonse Daudet was born May 13, 1840, tlie son of a man whose life had been far from successful, and of a woman of a dreamy and melancholy nature. Their home was at Nunes, where children had been born to them, of whom all but two had died. Daudet has written: "My childhood at home was a lamentable one. I have no recollection of home which is not a sorrowful one — a recollection of tears . . . the father always scolding, the mother always in tears." He had, as a child, an overwhelming passion for reading, devouring such books as " Robinson Crusoe " and the " Swiss Family Robinson," and other more or less exciting stories of adventure. With his brother Ernest he read everything that came to hand — good books and bad, novels, books of science, medical treatises, the classics — hurriedly and at whatever odd mo- ments they could be together. Much of this reading was done in bed after the rest of the family were asleep. They read Shakespeare, Ariosto, Lamartine, and Chateaubriand. Daudet knew "Robinson Crusoe" almost by heart, and with his brother used to act it out as far as their resources would permit. He also read Captain Marryat's " Midshipman Easy " and Cooper's "Pilot." At sixteen Alphonse Daudet went out into the world to earn his own living, and became an usher at a school for boys. This was almost im- possible work for such a youth, and in 1857 he went to Paris, having made up his mind quite definitely to get his living by literature. He was mis- erably poor and suflfered greatly. At last he got a chance on the Figaro, and continued to contribute to it for some years. A poem of his was read before the Empress and attracted her attention. She had the un- known author sought out, and a government place was found for him. He was then twenty-one. From that period his affairs were comparatively prosperotis, and a long series of novels, short stories, and poems began to apjjear and to make him famous. Of these his " Sapho " is one of the best known. The dedication, " To my sons when they are twenty," has increased its fame. Daudet's writings may be divided into two groups, those written before the fascination of the French capital had laid its grasp on him, and the second group consisting of the romances essentially Parisian in character or scene. In the first are to be found " Lettres de mon Moulin," "Robert Hclniont," " Tartarin de Tarascon " — the best modern farcical romance, a coml'ination of Don Quixote and Baron Munchausen, and most of his short stories. In the second group come " Sapho," " Les Rois en l*:xil," " Niiina Roumestan," " Jack," and most of his longer works, romances glowing with tlie brilliant lighted streets of Paris, and its Salons. I-acking the intenseness and simplicity of style of Maupassant, the clear insight into the motives of his characters of Balzac, Daudet possibly surpasses both in depicting the result of dazzling corruscations of beauty and pleasure. The footlights of his stage show the attractiveness of his characters, l)ut do not always j)oiiit out that it is mostly tinsel, paint and feathers. This is left for the reader to infer. From this point of view his novels arc more readable than those of the realists. 43 THE LIFE AND Strange Surprizing ADVENTURES Q F ROBINSON CRUSOE, Of TORK, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone on aa un-inhabited Ifland on the Coaft of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoq.ue; Having been caft on Shore by Shipwreck, where- in all the Men periflied but himfelf. WITH An Account how he was at laft as flrangelv . deli- vered by P Y R A T E S. Written by Himfelf. LONDON: Printed for W. T a v l o r at the Ship in Pater-Nofler' Row. MDCCXIX. 44 DANIEL DEFOE (1661-1731) THE LIFE AND STRANGE SURPRIZING ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE OF YORK, MARINER. [Nine lines.] Written by Him- self. London: Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row. MDCCXIX. 3 vols., 12mo, full crushed crimson levant morocco, gilt on the rough, by Riviere, and enclosed in a pull-off case. $1,250.00 The First Edition, containing the misprint on the second page of the Preface, where the word " Apyly " is mispelled for " Apply." The story is told of how Defoe's manuscript was refused by many of the London publishers before William Taylor, one of the most esteemed and successful of them, accepted it. The book came out April 25th, and its success was immediate; a second edition was called for only seventeen days after the first; a third followed twenty-five days later, and a fourth on August 8th. The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; Being the Second and Last Part Of His Life. ... To which is added a Map of the World . . . was issued in August of the same year, and was fol- lowed on August 6, 1720, by a sequel called Serious Reflections During The Life ... of Robinson Crusoe. Further evidence of the popularity of the work is furnished by the piracies, numerous imitations, and transla- tions that appeared within a short time after its publication. No doubt the leading facts were suggested by the experiences of Alexan- der Selkirk, whose adventures had been published in 1712 by Captain Rogers in his " Cruising Voyage Round the World," but it was only the outline thus made use of, and the wonderfxil detail and descriptions were entirely original. Defoe sold all his property in " Robinson Crusoe " to Taylor, who gained a very large fortune by it and its successors. When that worthy man died, only five years after the publication of the book, he was reputed to be worth between forty and fifty thousand pounds. He added an introduc- tion to "The Serious Reflections," in which he says: " The success the two former Parts have met with has been known by the Envy it has brought upon the Editor, express'd in a thousand hard Words from the Men of Trade; the Effect of that Regret which they enter- tain'd at their having no Share in it: And I must do the Author the Jus- tice to say that not a Dog has wag'd his Tongue at the Work itself, nor has a Word been said to lessen the Value of it, but which has been the visible Effect of that En^y at the good Fortune of the Bookseller." A guarantee of this good fortune may be seen in the later imprint of the book which read : " At the Ship and Black-Swan in Paternoster Row," that last-named property having been purchased out of the proceeds of its sale. Charles Lamb wrote to Walter Wilson, the biographer of Defoe, and Lamb's fellow clerk at the India House: " In the appearance of truth, in all the incidents and conversations that occur in them, they exceed any works of fiction I am acquainted with. It is perfect illusion. The Author never appears in these self-narratives (for so they ought to be called, or rather Autobiographies), but the Narrator chains us down to an implicit belief in everything he says. It was Dr. Johnson who said to Mrs. Thrale: "Was there ever anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting * Don Quixote,' ' Robinson Crusoe,' and the ' Pilgrim's Progress ' ? " 4,5 THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859) CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM- EATER. London: Printed for Taylor & Hessey, Fleet Street, 1822. 12 mo, original boards, uncut, with paper label, and four pages of advertisements. In a morocco solander case. $75.00 The First Edition. These papers first appeared in the London Magazine for October and November, 1821, at which time some of the finest of Charles Lamb's essays were coming out in the same magazine. The num- bers were speedily exhausted, and a reprint was publishd in 1822 and a second edition in 1823. The book aroused a tremendous amount of interest. Everywhere people were talking about the " Opium-Eater," and whether there could be any truth in the story. Much pressure was brought to bear upon the editor and publishers of the magazine for further contributions and for proofs of the genuineness of the revelations. De Quincey's reply to his critics was that " the entire ' Confessions ' were designed to convey a narrative of my own experience as an opium eater, drawn up with entire simplicity and fidelity to the facts, from which they can in no respect have deviated except by such trifling inaccuracies of date, etc., etc., as the memoranda I have with me in London would not in all cases enable me to reduce to certainty." The entire story of his craving for opium has been told in the " Confes- sions," at least in the original form, for later in life he tried to soften some of the passages in the book. De Quincey first " tampered with opium " to relieve neuralgic pains while he was still at Oxford — before he met his fellow-suiTerer Coleridge. In 1809 De Quincey had become so fond of the latter that he settled in his picturesque cottage at Townsend, previously occupied by Wordsworth and afterwards by Hartley Coleridge. De Quincey filled the house with so many books, that Coleridge, who was then living with Wordsworth, had sometimes 500 volumes from it at once, all of which he is said " to have scrupulously returned." It is interesting to note that the publication of the " Confessions " is probably due to Charles Lamb, who first met De Quincey in 1804, and who introduced him to the London Macjazinc in 1821. They kept up a friendly intercourse for many years, and one of our best pictures of Lamb is found in De Quincey's " London Reminiscences." Early in 1822, just after the "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater," had ap- peared, Lamb grew tired of his contributions to the London Magazine, which for two years he had written constantly: " If I could slip out of it I should be happy, but our chief reputed assistants have forsaken us. The opium eater crossed us once with a dazzling path, and hath as suddenly left us darkling; and in short I shall go on from dull to worse, because I cannot resist the Bookseller's importunity — the old ])lea you know of authors, but I believe on my part sincere." When De Quincey wrote the " Confessions " in 1822 the opium habit was of more than ten years' standing. He made several efforts to conquer it, and at one time reduced the 340 grains which he took daily to 40 grains. An attachment formed at Grasmere to a Miss Margaret Simp- son was the motive for his reform. The habit soon mastered him again, and he became the victim of curious dreams, one of which was that he thought himself haunted by a tremendous crocodile, and a certain Malay long continued to torment him. 46 CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD. By Charles Dickens. With Il- lustrations b}^ H. K. Browne. London: Bradbury & Evans, 11 Bouverie-Street, 1850. 8vo, full crimson morocco, gilt edges. $350.00 The First Edition, Presentation copy with the following inscription: " W. C. Macready, From his affectionate friend, Charles Dickens. Third December, 1850." Late in 1848 and early in 1849 Dickens began to think about his new novel, which became " David Copperfield." Yarmouth he visited for the first time toward the close of 1848, and he then determined to make some use of it in his future work. As usual there were many deliberations and discussions over the title. " Mag's Diversions " was suggested and dis- carded ; " The Copperfield Survey " was another ; " The Last Will and Testament of David Copperfield," and in April he finally decided upon " David Copperfield." The story began to appear the first of May, and once fairly at work it bore him along almost irresistibly. It was written at Dickens's house in Devonshire Terrace for the most part between the opening of 1849 and October, 1850, and published by Bradbury and Evans in twenty monthly parts, at one shilling each. The last two numbers were issued together in one wrapper. In the first edition the illustrated title-page bears date 1850, which was omitted from later editions of the same year. The circulation in parts was about twenty-five thousand. The complete story was published as a guinea volume in No- vember, 1850, with a preface dated London, October, 1850. Of the story Thackeray said: "How beautiful it is — how charmingly fresh and simple! In those admirable touches of tender humour, a mixture of love and wit, who can equal this great genius ? " Thackeray's daughter, now Lady Ritchie, tells of its effect on her as a child: "I can remember when 'David Copperfield' came out, hearing him (Thackeray] say with emphasis to my grandmother that 'little Em'ly's letter to old Peggotty was a masterpiece.' I wondered to hear him at the time, for that was not at all the part I cared for most, nor indeed could I imagine how little Em'ly was so stupid as to run away from Peggotty's enchanted house-boat. But we each and all enjoyed in turn our share of those thin green books full of delicious things, and how glad we were when they came to our hands at last, after our elders and our governess and our butler had all read them in turn." Matthew Arnold said of it: "What a pleasure to have the o])portunity of praising a work so soimd, a work so rich In merits as ' David Copper- field.' . . . To contemporary work so good as ' David Copperfield ' we are in danger of perhaps not paying respect enough, of reading it (for who could help reading it?) too hastily, and then putting it aside for something else and forgetting it. What treasures of gaiety, invention, life are in that book! What alertness and resource! What a soul of good nature and kindness governing the whole." 47 POEMS. ^j> J. D. WITH ELEGIES ON THE AUTHORS DEATH. LONDON. Printed by MK for Iohn Marriot^ and are tobe fold at his fhbp in StDunJians Church-vard in Fltet.fyett. 1^33. 48 JOHN DONNE (1573-1631) POEMS BY J. D. WITH ELEGIES ON THE AUTHORS DEATH. London. Printed by M. F. for John ]Marriot, and are to be sold at his shop in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street. 1633. Small 4to, full contemporary calf, with modern label. $60.00 This copy contains Juvenilia, London, 1633, which is often wanting. An entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company shows the book to have been regularly licensed, though somewhat delayed' owing to the doubts of the censor concerning the satires and certain of the elegies. "13 Septembris, 1632. " John Marriott. Entred for his copy under the handes of Sir Henry Herbert and both the wardens a booke of verses and poems (the five satires, the first, second, tenth, eleaventh, and thirteenth elegies being excepted) and these before excepted to be his, when he bringes lawfull authority . . . vjd. "Written by Doctor John Dunn." In 1637, after two editions had been published, the poet's son, who had a somewhat unsavory reputation, addressed a petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury stating that it had been put forth " withoute anie leaue or authoritie," and, as a result, the Archbishop issued the following order, December 16, 163T. " I require ye Parties whom this Petition concernes not to meddle any farther with ye Printing or Selling of any ye pretended workes of ye late Deane of St. Paules, saue onely such as shall be licensed by publike authority, and approued by the Petitioner, as they will answere ye' contrary to theyr perill. And this I desire Mr. Deane of ye Arches to take care. In view of this discussion, Marriott's note in " The Printer to the Understanders," which is not found in all copies, and which, since it is printed on two extra leaves, was evidently an afterthought for late issues, takes on an added interest. The younger Donne's petition is supported by the appearance of the book itself, which was edited in a very careless fashion, without any attempt at order or relation. But, on the other hand, as Mr. Edmund Gosse has pointed out, Marriott and his edition really do seem to have had the support of the best men among Donne's disciples and friends: King, Hyde, Thomas Browne, Richard Corbet, Henry Valentine, Izaak Walton, Thomas Carew, Jasper Mayne, Richard Brathwaite, and Endymion Porter, all of whom, beside several others, combined to write the elegies mentioned on the title-page. The printer, " M. F.," was Miles Flesher, or Fletcher, successor to George i-Ad. He also printed for Marriott the second edition of 1635 in octavo, and the third of 1639, which, in the matter of contents, is prac- tically the same as the second. A charming story is told of Donne's runaway match. When not much more than twenty he fell in love with Anne More, niece of Lady Ellesmere, and her father not a})proving a secret marriage was affected. Donne was at the time secretary to Lord Ellesmere, who when he learned of the marriage, dismissed him. Donne's apparent ruin failed to prevent him from making a play on words, for in writing the sad news to his wife he added to his signature the line: "John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done." 49 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL POEM. Si Propitf jies Te Cafiet Magis LONDON, Printed for J. t. and are to be Sold by W. Davti in Amen-Corner, i 68 I. 50 JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700) ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. A Poem. Si Propius stes Te Capiet JNlagis. London: Printed for J. T. and are to be sold by W. Davis in Amen- Corner. 1681. P'olio, full crushed levant morocco, gilt on the rough by Riviere & Son. $85.00 The First Edition. The Earl of Shaftesbury, here typified as Achitophel for his share in the conspiracy to place the young Duke of Monmouth [Absalom,] on the throne, was committed to the Tower in July, 1681; and this satire appeared in November, just before the Grand Jury acquitted him. Notwithstanding the lateness of the work, its success was unprece- dented. It was undertaken at the desire of Charles II, in 1680, and Dry- den was at work on it for about nine months. The first edition was sold in a month, a second appeared in December of the same year, 1681. Two or three editions came out the next year, and a sixth in 1684. It has been translated into Latin verse. We are told that Samuel Johnson's father, a bookseller of Lichfield, said that he could not remember a sale of equal rapidity, except that of the reports of the Sacheverell trial. Dryden's name does not appear in the book; nor yet in the second edition, to which Tonson added two unsigned poems " To the unknown author." Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the work, was one of the notable figures in the annals of book-publishing in England, and his name is inseparably connected with some of the most important literary ventures of the period — Milton, Addison, Steele, Congreve, but above all with those of Dryden. Basil Kennett wrote in 1696: "'Twill be as impossible to think of Virgil without Mr. Dryden, as of either without Mr. Tonson." He was so poor when he began business that he is said to have borrowed the twenty pounds necessary to the purchase of the first play of Dryden's that he published, but he died in affluent circumstances, having fully earned the title of " prince of booksellers." He was the founder of the famous Kit-Kat Club, and in spite of Dryden's ill-tempered lines, " With leering looks, bull-faced and freckled fair. With two left legs, with Judas-coloured hair. And frowsy pores that taint the ambient air," he was not unliked by his clients and friends. Addison says in the Spectator: "The natural pride and ambition of the soul is very much gratified in the reading of a fable; for, in writings of this kind the reader comes in for half of the performance; everything appears to him like a discovery of his own. . . . For this reason the ' Ab- salom and Achitophel ' was one of the most popular poems that ever ap- peared in England." Samuel Derrick wrote in 1760: "This poem is said to be one of the most })erfect allegorical pieces that our language has jji-oduccd. TIic veil is nowhere laid aside. There is a just similarity in the characters, wiiicli are exactly jjortrayed; the lincanu-iits are well coj)icd ; the colouring is lively; the groupings show the hand of a master, and may serve to convince tis that Mr. Dryden knew his own power, when he asserted, that he found it easier to write severely than gently." 51 DENIS DIDEROT (1713-1784) JACQUES LE FATALISTE ET SON MAITRE. Par Diderot. Tome Premier. A Paris, chez Buisson. Imprimeur-Libraire, rue Haiite-Feuille, No. 20. Au Cinquieme de la Republique. [1797.] 2 vols., 12mo, half cloth, $25.00 The First Edition. In 1762 Laurence Sterne visited Paris, and found that " Tristram Shandy " was almost as well known there as in England. He found himself invited everywhere, and at one of these entertainments he met Diderot. In 1768 the " Sentimental Journey " appeared, and was welcomed in Paris as heartily as in London. It was exactly the sort of book to catch the popular fancy in France, and it at once brought forth many imitations. Of these the only one now known is Diderot's " Jacques le Fataliste." It was written about 1773, at which time the author was making preparations for a tour to Holland and Russia. It apparently circulated in manuscript form, and the first fragment was printed in 1785, the translation having been made by Schiller. It was in Germany that the first complete version of the whole of " Jacques " ap- peared in 1793. Four years later the French obtained possession of an original transcript. Goethe wrote in 1780: "There is going about here a MS. of Diderot's called ' Jacques le Fataliste et son Maitre,' and it is really first-rate — a very fine and exquisite meal, prepared and dished up with great skill, as if for the palate of some singular idol. I set myself in the place of this Bel, and in six uninterrupted hours swallowed all the courses in the order, and according to the intentions, of this excellent cook and maitre d'hotel." Its great appeal to men like Goethe and Schiller was because of its lightness of touch as compared with the heavy formalism of the German literature of their generation. Sainte-Beuve spoke of Diderot as " the most German head in France." " Jacques le Fataliste " contains among its stories that of the " Histoire de Mme. de la Pommeraye," as told by the mistress of the inn. This has always been considered Diderot's most perfect and most characteristic effort as a story-teller. Even in his novels it is the directness and the veracity of his scientific spirit united to his emotional nature which gives significance to his work. He wrote what he found to write and left the piece, as Carlyle said, " on the waste of accident with an ostrich-like indifference." It is said that he was himself conscious of the want of literary merit in his work, and when he heard that a collected edition of his works was in the press at Amsterdam, greeted the news with " peals of laughter," so well did he know the haste with which those works had been dashed off. All accounts agree that he was seen at his best in conversation. " He who only knows Diderot in his writings," says Marmontel, " does not know him at all. When he grew animated in talk, and allowed his thoughts to flow in all their abundance, then he became truly ravishing." The times were skeptical when " Jacques le Fataliste " was written. Voltaire had paved the way, and Rousseau, d'Alembert, Mirabeau and Diderot completed the task. It was not so much perhaps a real relief in the deistical or skeptical doctrines of those philosophers, as the love of change and protest against the regime of Cardinals and Kings. The cul- mination was the public worship of the " Goddess of Reason." Whether Diderot absolutely believed all he wrote is a question; perhaps there is much more of satire than belief in his writings. 52 GEORGE ELIOT ]\IARY ANN OR MARIAN CROSS (1819-1880) ADAjNI BEDE. By George Eliot, Author of " Scenes of Clerical Life." [Quotation.] In Three Volumes. Vol. I. William Blackwood & Sons, Edin- burgh and London. :MDCCCLIX. The Right of Translation is reserved. 3 vols., 12mo, original cloth, uncut. $25.00 The First Edition. "The first volume of ['Adam Bede'] says George Eliot " was written at Richmond, and given to Blackwood in March. He expressed great admiration of its freshness and vividness, but seemed to hesitate about putting it in the Magazine, which was the form of publication he, as well as myself, had previously contemplated. He still wished to have it for the Magazine, but desired to know the course of the story. At present he saw nothing to prevent its reception in ' Maga,' but he would like to see more. I am uncertain whether his doubts rested solely on Hetty's relation to Arthur, or whether they were also directed towards the treatment of Methodism by the Church. I refused to tell my story before- hand, on the ground that I would not have it judged apart from my treat- ment, which alone determines the moral quality of art; and ultimately I proposed that the notion of publication in ' Maga ' should be given up, and that the novel should be published in three volumes at Christmas, if pos- sible. He assented." "... When, on October 29th, I had written to the end of the love- scene at the Farm between Adam and Dinah, I sent the MS. to Black- wood, since the remainder of the third volume could not afiPect the judgment passed on what had gone before. He wrote back in warm admiration, and oflFered me, on the part of the firm, £800 for four years' copyright. I accepted the ofifer. . . . The book would have been published at Christmas, or rather early in December, but that Bulwer's 'What will he do with it?' was to be published by Blackwood at that time, and it was thought that this novel might interfere with mine." The book was published the first day of January, with the still unpene- trated pseudonvm on the title-page at a cost of thirty-one shillings and six pence. The advance subscriptions amounted to 730 copies, and the follow- ing note, written March 16th, gives the history of its success: " Blackwood writes to say I am ' a popular author as well as a great author.' They printed 2,090 of ' Adam Bede ' and have disposed of more than 1,800, so that they are thinking of a second edition." In May Blackwood proposed to add, at the end of the year, £400 to the £800 originally given for the copyright. A fourth edition of 5,000 coi>ies was issued in 1859, all of which "were sold in a fortnight; a seventh was printed the same year, and in October Blackwood felt justified in pro- posing to pay £800 more at the beginning of the new year. The sale amounted to Hi,000 copies in one year. A claim to the authorship was set up by a Mr. Liggins, which is said to have caused George Eliot a needless amount of irritation. 58 RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882) NATURE. [Quotation.] Boston: James Munroe and Company. MDCCCXXXVI. l6mo^ original black cloth. $22.50 The First Edition, issued anonymously. Emerson writes to iiis brotiier William, under date of June 28, 1836: "My little book is nearly done. Its title is ' Nature.' Its contents will not exceed in bulk Sampson Reed's ' Growth of the Mind.' My design is to follow it by another essay, ' Spirit,' and the two shall make a decent volume." August 8th: "The book of 'Nature' still lies on the table. There is, as always, one crack in it, not easy to be soldered or welded; but if this week I should be left alone I may finish it." The proofs passed through his hands during the latter part of August, and it was published in September. It did not attract very much atten- tion at first. Only a few hundred copies were sold, and an interval of twelve years occurred before a second edition was called for. The Chris- tian Examiner, the organ of the Unitarians, spoke of it as " a poetical rhapsody, containing much beautiful writing and not devoid of sound philosophy, but, on the whole, producing the impression of a disordered dream." It was also spoken of as " a prose poem from beginning to end." Under date of September 12, 1836, Bronson Alcott wrote to a friend: "Have you seen Mr. Emerson's 'Nature'? If you have not let me send you a copy. It is just to your taste. ... It reminds me more of Samp- son Reed's ' Growth of the Mind ' than any work of modern date. But it is unlike any other work." Tyndall said of it: " WeU, the first time I ever knew Waldo Emerson was when, years ago, a young man, I picked up on a stall a copy of his ' Nature.' I read it with much delight, and I have never ceased to read it; and if any one can be said to have given the impulse to my mind, it is Emerson. Whatever I have done, the world owes to him." Emerson's career as a literary man began with the publication of " Na- ture." He wrote it after his return from Europe while staying with Dr. Ripley in the " Old Manse " in Concord — wrote it in the very room of the old house in which Hawthorne afterward wrote his " Mosses from an Old Manse," and published it anonjTnously in Boston. In the same year he edited the early sheets of Carlyle's " Sartor Resartus," and in 1838 three volumes of his Essays, all of which appeared in book form in this coun- try before they did in England, and incidentally added much to Carlyle's fame, as well as his income. In the same way " Nature " met with con- siderable appreciation in England, while in the United States it took twelve years to sell five hundred copies. Emerson was called a transcendentalist, a revolutionary, a fool who did not know his own meaning. John Quincy Adams wrote of him in 1840: "After failing in the everyday vocations of a Unitarian preacher and schoolmaster, he starts a new doctrine of tran- scendentalism, declares aU the old revelations superannuated and worn out, and announces the approach of new revelations." After many years the world finally decided that it was not Emerson's mission to do practical work for reforms, but to supply impulses and a high inspiration to the workers. Emerson was tall and slender, not of robust physique, rather sallow in the face, with an aquiline nose, brown hair and eyes of the ' strongest and brightest blue.' His appearance was majestic. He was calm, kindly in expression, frequently smiled, but seldom laughed. 54 HENRY FIELDING (1707-1754) THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUND- LING. In Six Volumes. By Henry Fielding, Esq. [Quotation.] London: Printed for A. Millar, over- against Catharine Street, in the Strand. MDCCXLIX. 6 vols.^ 18mo, full mottled calf, sprinkled edges. $60.00 The First Edition. The announcement of the appearance of the work in the General Advertiser for February 28, 1749, reads as follows: " This day is published, in six vols., 12mo, ' The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.' — Mores hominum multorum vidit. By Henry Fielding, Esq. " It being impossible to get sets bound fast enough to answer the de- mand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as please may have them served in Blue Paper and Boards, at the price of 16s. a set, of A. Millar, over-against Catharine Street, in the Strand," The sale was reaUy enormous for those days, and Millar, the successful publisher, could afford to be generous to Fielding, as he had been to others, thus winning for himself the position of a patron as well as pub- lisher. Johnson called him " the Maecenas of literature." " I respect Millar, sir," said he, " he has raised the price of literature." Horace Walpole gives us an account of the dealings of this remarkable man in this case. He says, in a letter to George Montagu: "Millar, the bookseller, has done very generously by him [Fielding] ; finding ' Tom Jones ' for which he gave him £600, sells so greatly, he has since given him another £100." The story is often repeated that Fielding gave a sum borrowed from Millar, which was intended to pay his taxes, to a poorer friend, and when the tax-collector called made his famous reply : " Friend- ship has called for the money; let the collector call again." A second edition in four volumes was issued the same year, and a third, also in four volumes, the year following. The book has been trans- lated into French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and Swedish. It was frequently dramatized, and was also turned into a comic opera by Joseph Reed and performed at Covent Garden. In 1770, thirteen booksellers prosecuted Alexander Donaldson for print- ing " Tom Jones " and " Joseph Andrews " without permission, which shows that its value had not decreased with successive editions, or else the various partners, whose well-known names are signed to it, would not have thought it worth their while to prosecute. In December, 1848, Fielding was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Westminster. The appointment was clue to his old schoolfellow Lyttelton, who had introduced him to the Duke of Bedford (see the dedication of "Tom Jones"). In this dedication Fielding says that he " partly owes his existence to Lyttelton during his composition of the book, and that it would never have been completed without his helj). The Duke of Bedford's " princely instance of generosity " is also acknowledged in the dedication. Another of Fielding's patrons was Ral|)h Allen, to whom there is a reference in "Joseph Andrews." "Tom Jones" is said to have been written at Twer- ton-on-Avon, near Bath, where there is still a house called " Fielding's house." 55 EDWARD FITZGERALD (1809-1883) RUBAIYAT OF OMAH KHAYYAJVI, THE ASTRONOTlIER-POET OF PERSIA. Translated into English Verse. London: Bernard Quaritch, Castle Street, Leicester Square. 1859. 4to, in the original paper wrappers. $350.00 The First Edition of this famous book now so keenly sought for by the collector. The manuscript of this famous book was offered by Fitzgerald to the editor of Eraser's Magazine, who returned it after holding it a long time, apparently afraid to publish it. It was not until years afterward that the poet, having nearly doubled the number of the verses, issued it himself, anonymously, inserting in the imprint, without even asking permission, the name of Bernard Quaritch. The little pamphlet in brown paper, with its eleven pages of biography, and five pages of notes, against sixteen pages of poem, was not attractive in appearance; and we are told that it was not advertised in any way, except by entry among the Oriental numbers of Quaritch's catalogue. So it is really not to be greatly wondered at that its sale was slow, even though the price was low as five shillings. Two hundred copies remaining on his hands, Quaritch, who had consented to act as bookseller, finally resorted to the expedient of offering them at half-a-crown, then at a shilling, then at six pence, until finally they were cleared out at a penny a volume. Those who read it at this price acted as leaven, and nine years after- ward, in 1868, a second edition was called for; a third was published in 1872, and a fourth in 1879. These were all issued by Quaritch at his own expense, and all without the translator's name. Quaritch paid Fitzgerald a small honorarium, which he promptly gave away in charity. FitzGerald wrote : " As to my own Peccadilloes in verse, which never pretend to be original, this is the story of Rubaiyat. I had translated them partly for Cowell: young Parker asked me some years ago for something for Fraser, and I gave him the less wicked of these to use if he chose. He kept them for two years without using: and as I saw he didn't want them I printed some copies with Quaritch; and, keeping some for myself, gave him the rest. Cowell, to whom I sent a copy, was naturally alarmed at it; he being a very religious man; nor have I given any other copy but to George Borrow, to whom I had once lent the Persian, and to old Donne when he was down here the other day, to whom I was showing a passage in another book which broug'at my old Omar up." " English-speaking people would have cared but little for a Persian poet of the twelfth century, if he had merely represented the hopes, the fears, the aspirations of that country. With unintentional insight, Fitz- gerald infused his poem with that spirit of modernity which answered the needs of his generation. At the close of a century, when the illusions which surrounded its birth, the gay day-dreams that gave colour to its youth, the sobriety of middle life, are past and gone, to be succeeded by the disappointing realities of age and the fear of approaching extinction, the mind of the world is hardly in tune with the poetry of optimism. The popularity of Omarism will be probably periodic, but while the cult may be expected to evaporate in the next change of atmosphere, the beauty and distinction of the poem and the music of its diction will still endure with antiseptic power." 5Q GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (1821-1880) MADAJVIE BOVARY — MOEURS DE PRO- VINCE PAR GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. [Print- ers' device.] Paris: Michel Levy Freres, Libraires — Editeurs rue Vivienne, 2 bis. 1857. Traduction et re- production reservees. 2 vols., 12mo, half cloth, uncut, with original paper covers pre- served. $25.00 The First Edition. "Madame Bovary " was published in 1857, and marked the change from the Romantic to the Realistic School. In it the author presents pictures of the most realistic sort, and all his characters are drawn with remarkable vividness. This was his first novel, and set the style of the new fiction followed as a model for many years. He wrote to Madame Colet in 1853: "The ' Bovary ' is not getting along very fast: two pages in one week! It is enough, at times, to make me smash my mouth with despair, if I may so express myself." His work was alwaj'S the result of the most painful application. Zola gives us a picture of Flaubert at work: "When he sat down at his desk, with a page of his first draft, he took his head in his two hands and looked at the page for a long time, as if he had hypnotized it. He let fall his pen, said not a word, remained absorbed in thought, seeking a word that es- caped him or a form the turn of which proved elusive. Tourgenieff, who had seen him under these conditions, affirmed that it was pathetic." " Madame Bovary " first appeared in the Revue de Paris, where it was changed and mutilated, much to the disgust of the author. At this time he wrote to a friend: "Do you suppose that the ignoble reality, the depicting of which sickens you, has not a precisely similar efi"ect upon me? If you knew me better, you would be aware that I abhor ordinary life. Personally, I have always kept as far away from it as I have been able to do; but aesthetically I wished to dig into it thor- oughly for this once, but only for this once. That is why I have gone about it in heroic fashion, which means in minute fashion, accepting every part of it, stating everything, depicting everything — which is an ambitious expression." Flaubert collected his materials for " Madame Bovary " in the most seri- ous way — driving around Rouen for hours, day after day, and thus noting the effect produced on the people and cabmen by the constant reappear- ance of the same cab always with its blinds down. He then wrote the chapter on the famous drive of Emma Bovary and Leon Dupuis, " for which alone he ought to have been prosecuted," according to Napoleon III, "con- sidering that for months after the publication of the book the innocent uncle with his pretty niece and the somewhat passee aunt with her lamb- like nephew could not engage a cab without being fleeced. . . ." The book created a tremendous sensation. Flaubert became the idol and leader of the younger writers — men like Daudet, Huysmans, and Maupassant. Prof. Saintsbury in writing of Flaubert says: "His merits are an al- most incomi)arable power of description, a mastery of those types of char- acter which he attempts, an imagination of extraordinary jiower, and a singular satirical criticism of life, which does not exclude the possession of a vein 'of romantic and almost poetical sentiment and suggestion. He is a writer repulsive to many, unintelligible to more, and never likely to be generally popular, but sure to retain his place in the admiration of those who judge literature as literature." 57 SIR PHILIP FRANCIS "JUNIUS' LETTERS" (1740-1818) JUNIUS. STAT NOMINIS UMBRA. Vol. I. London: Printed for Henry Sampson Woodfall, in Pater Noster Row. MDCCLXXII. 2 vols, l6mo, full mottled calf, gilt on the rough, by Zaehnsdorf. $25.00 The First Edition. The mystery of the authorship of the "Letters of Junius " may confidently be described as the most important and artfully contrived literary secret of modern times. Nearly everyone has had a hand in it, and practically every prominent man of that day has been put forward as the only real author. These letters first appeared on January 21, 1769, in a London news- paper called the Public Advertiser, printed by Henry Sampson Woodfall, a man of education, and in business discreet and of good standing. The letters began to appear about nine years after the accession of George III. While nominally addressed to certain men of the highest rank they were obviously intended for the eyes of the people. Their character was such as to attract immediate attention. From the first it was clear that they were written by some man of great position and power, and if Wood- fall was ignorant of the person of Junius it seems that he knew his rank as he approaches him with the greatest deference, as though address- ing a superior being. When sending his final letter Junius begged Woodfall to make the most of the Letters for his own personal benefit. He wrote: " When the book is finished let me have a set bound in vellum, gUt and lettered, as handsome as you can — the edges gilt; let the sheets be well dried before binding." From time to time the finding of this set has been reported, but never actually discovered. Many men have been " positively " identified as the author — Lord Ches- terfield, Burke, Wilkes, and Johnson among them. One of the latest state- ments on the theory of Junius is contained in " Junius Unveiled " by James Smith. This gives the credit to Gibbon absolutely, and attempts to prove the fact by similarities of style. Gibbon's great knowledge of men and events, military life, and terms, etc. Some forty men in all have been mentioned. The second wife of Sir Philip Francis, whom he married in 1814, two years before the publication of Taylor's "Junius Identified," said that her husband's first gift had been an edition of Junius, " which he bade me take to my room and not let it be seen or speak upon the sub- ject; and his posthumous present, which his son found in his bureau, was ' Junius Identified ' sealed up and directed to me." When Sir Philip Francis was once confronted with the so-called proofs of his identity as Junius, he exclaimed: "God! if men force laurels on my head, I'll wear them." Chabot's work has also established the fact that the author was Sir Philip Francis. 58 EDWARD GIBBON (1737-1794) THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AXD FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By Edward Gibbon, Esq. Volume the First. [Quotation.] Lon- don: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, In the Strand. iMDCCLXXVL [— MDCCLXXXVIIL] 6 vols., 4tOj Portrait, half calf, sprinkled edges. $35.00 The First Edition. It was on the 17th of February that the first volume of the great work finally " declined into the World," as the author ex- pressed it. Its popularity was immediate. " I am at a loss how to describe the success of the work without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand, and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost on every toilette. . . ." Under date of April 13, 1781, he writes to his stepmother: "The recep- tion of these two volumes has been very unlike that of the first, and yet my vanity is so very dexterous, that I am not displeased with the differ- ence. The efi'ects of novelty could no longer operate, and the public was not surprised by the unexpected appearance of a new and unknown author. The progress of these two volumes has hitherto been quiet and silent. Almost everybody that reads has purchased, but few persons (compara- tively) have read them; and I find that the greatest number, satisfied that they have acquired a valuable fund of entertainment, defer the perusal to the summer, the country, and a more quiet period. Yet I have reason to think, from the opinion of some judges, that my reputation has not suffered by this publication. The clergy (such is the advantage of a total loss of character) commend my decency and moderation, but the patriots wish to down the work and the author." The publishers had allowed Gibbon two thirds of the profits for the first volume, which amounted on the first edition to £490. In another letter written in 1788, to his stepmother, Gibbon refers again to his relations with Cadell : " The public, where it costs them nothing, are extravagantly liberal ; yet I will allow with Dr. Johnson ' that booksellers in this age are not the worst patrons of literature.' " Allibone tells us that the historian's " profit on the whole is stated to have been £6,000, whilst the booksellers netted the handsome sum of £60,000." The sixth volume was finished June 27th, 1787, and was published with the fourth and fifth in April, 1788. Gibbon says: "The impression of the fourth volume had consumed three months; our common interest required that we should move with quicker pace, and Mr. Strahan fulfilled his engagement, which few printers could sustain, of delivering everj' week three thousand copies of nine sheets. The day of pub- lication was, however, delayed, that it might coincide with the fifty-first anniversary of my own birthday; the double festival was celebrated by a cheerful literary dinner at Mr. Cadell's house, and I seemed to blush while they read an elegant compliment from Mr. Haley." John Hall, historical engraver to George III, executed the portrait of Gibbon, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, which faces the title page of the first volume. The plate was issued separately in 1780, Cadell, the publisher, having " strenuouslv urged the curiosity of the ])uhlic " as a reason for its immediate pul)lication. The vignettes ('inl)leniatic of Rome arc most appro- priately introduced. 59 THE VICAR O F WAKEFIELD: A TALE. Suppofed to be written by Himself, Sperate mifcrty cavete f