Chapter XII

AN ENGLISH LIBRARY: PERIOD II

After dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to John Dryden, I must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered roughly by the eighteenth century. There is, however, no reason why the student in quest of a library should follow the chronological order. Indeed, I should advise him to attack the nineteenth century before the eighteenth, for the reason that, unless his taste happens to be peculiarly "Augustan," he will obtain a more immediate satisfaction and profit from his acquisitions in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth. There is in eighteenth-century literature a considerable proportion of what I may term "unattractive excellence," which one must have for the purposes of completeness, but which may await actual perusal until more pressing and more human books have been read. I have particularly in mind the philosophical authors of the century.

PROSE WRITERS. £ s. d. JOHN LOCKE, *Philosophical Works:* Bohn's Edition (2 vols.) 0 7 0 SIR ISAAC NEWTON, *Principia* (sections 1, 2, and 3): Macmillan's 0 12 0 Gilbert Burnet, *History of His Own Time:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 William Wycherley, *Best Plays:* Mermaid Series 0 2 6 WILLIAM CONGREVE, *Best Plays:* Mermaid Series 0 2 6 Jonathan Swift, *Tale of a Tub:* Scott Library 0 1 0 Jonathan Swift, *Gulliver's Travels:* Temple Classics 0 1 6 DANIEL DEFOE, *Robinson Crusoe:* World's Classics 0 1 0 DANIEL DEFOE, *Journal of the Plague Year:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, *Essays:* Scott Library 0 1 0 William Law, *Serious Call:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Lady Mary W. Montagu, *Letters:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 George Berkeley, *Principles of Human Knowledge:* New Universal Library 0 1 0 SAMUEL RICHARDSON, *Clarissa* (abridged): Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 John Wesley, *Journal:* Everyman's Library (4 vols.) 0 4 0 HENRY FIELDING, *Tom Jones:* Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 HENRY FIELDING, *Amelia:* Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 HENRY FIELDING, *Joseph Andrews:* Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 David Hume, *Essays:* World's Classics 0 1 0 LAURENCE STERNE, *Tristram Shandy:* World's Classics 0 1 0 LAURENCE STERNE, *Sentimental Journey:* New Universal Library 0 1 0 Horace Walpole, *Castle of Otranto:* King's Classics 0 1 6 Tobias Smollett, *Humphrey Clinker:* Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 Tobias Smollett, *Travels through France and Italy:* World's Classics 0 1 0 ADAM SMITH, *Wealth of Nations:* World's Classics (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Samuel Johnson, *Lives of the Poets:* World's Classics (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Samuel Johnson, *Rasselas:* New Universal Library 0 1 0 JAMES BOSWELL, *Life of Johnson:* Everyman's Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Oliver Goldsmith, *Works:* Globe Edition 0 3 6 Henry Mackenzie, *The Man of Feeling:* Cassell's National Library 0 0 6 Sir Joshua Reynolds, *Discourses on Art:* Scott Library 0 1 0 Edmund Burke, *Reflections on the French Revolution:* Scott Library 0 1 0 Edmund Burke, *Thoughts on the Present Discontents:* New Universal Library 0 1 0 EDWARD GIBBON, *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:* World's Classics (7 vols.) 0 7 0 Thomas Paine, *Rights of Man:* Watts and Co.'s Edition 0 1 0 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, *Plays:* World's Classics 0 1 0 Fanny Burney, *Evelina:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Gilbert White, *Natural History of Selborne:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Arthur Young, *Travels in France:* York Library 0 2 0 Mungo Park, *Travels:* Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Jeremy Bentham, *Introduction to the Principles of Morals:* Clarendon Press 0 6 6 THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, *Essay on the Principle of Population:* Ward, Lock's Edition 0 3 6 William Godwin, *Caleb Williams:* Newnes's Edition 0 1 0 Maria Edgeworth, *Helen:* Macmillan's Illustrated Edition 0 2 6 JANE AUSTEN, *Novels:* Nelson's New Century Library (2 vols.) 0 4 0 James Morier, *Hadji Baba:* Macmillan's Illustrated Novels 0 2 6 £5 1 0

The principal omissions here are Jeremy Collier, whose outcry against the immorality of the stage is his slender title to remembrance; Richard Bentley, whose scholarship principally died with him, and whose chief works are no longer current; and "Junius," who would have been deservedly forgotten long ago had there been a contemporaneous Sherlock Holmes to ferret out his identity.

POETS. £ s. d. Thomas Otway, *Venice Preserved:* Temple Dramatists 0 1 0 Matthew Prior, *Poems on Several Occasions:* Cambridge English Classics 0 4 6 John Gay, *Poems:* Muses' Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 ALEXANDER POPE, *Works:* Globe Edition 0 3 6 Isaac Watts, *Hymns:* Any hymn-book 0 1 0 James Thomson, *The Seasons:* Muses' Library 0 1 0 Charles Wesley, *Hymns:* Any hymn-book 0 1 0 THOMAS GRAY, Samuel Johnson, William Collins, *Poems:* Muses' Library 0 1 0 James Macpherson (Ossian), *Poems:* Canterbury Poets 0 1 0 THOMAS CHATTERTON, *Poems:* Muses' Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 WILLIAM COWPER, *Poems:* Canterbury Poets 0 1 0 WILLIAM COWPER, *Letters:* World's Classics 0 1 0 George Crabbe, *Poems:* Methuen's Little Library 0 1 6 WILLIAM BLAKE, *Poems:* Muses' Library 0 1 0 William Lisle Bowles, Hartley Coleridge, *Poems:* Canterbury Poets 0 1 0 ROBERT BURNS, *Works:* Globe Edition 0 3 6 £1 7 0

SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD.

£ s. d. 39 prose-writers in 60 volumes, costing 5 1 0 18 poets " 18 " " 1 7 0 57 78 £6 8 0