a single thought, where it is all curiously and accurately delineated! How superior, again, the exercise of that faculty, when, rising from effects to causes, and judging by analogy of things as yet unknown by those we know, we are taught to look into futurity for a better state of existence, and in the hope itself find new reason to hope! We were shewn an inaccessible shelf of rock on the west side of the Jungfrau, upon which a lämmergeierthe vulture of lambs-once alighted with an infant it had carried away from the village of Murren, situated above the Staubbach: some red scraps, remnants of the child's clothes, were for years observed, says the tradition, on the fatal spot. M- had promised to Rousseau that he would publish his Confessions as they were, yet he took upon himself to suppress a passage explaining certain circumstances of his abjurations at Anneci, affording a curious but frightfully disgusting picture of monkish manners at the time. It is a pity that Mr M- did not break his word in regard to some few more passages of that most admirable and most vile of all the productions of genius. Madame de Staël (1766-1817). The following are sketches of character by scenes in which she lived. Mixing again, not many Simond: Rousseau (1712-1778). Rousseau, from his garret, governed an empire-that of the mind; the founder of a new religion in politics, and to his enthusiastic followers a prophet-he said and they believed! The disciples of Voltaire might be more numerous, but they were bound to him by far weaker ties. Those of Rousseau made the French Revolution, and perished for it; while Voltaire, miscalculating its chances, perished by it. Both perhaps deserved their fate; but the former certainly acted the nobler part, and went to battle with the best weapons too-for in the deadly encounter of all the passions, of the most opposite principles and irreconcilable prejudices, cold-hearted wit is of little avail. Heroes and martyrs do not care for epigrams; and he must have enthusiasm who pretends to lead the enthusiastic or to cope with them. Une intime persuasion, Rousseau has somewhere said, m'a toujours tenu lieu d'éloquence! And well it might; for the first requisite to command belief is to believe yourself. Nor is it easy to impose on mankind in this respect. There is no eloquence, no ascendency over the minds of others, without this intimate persuasion, in yourself. Rousseau's might only be a sort of poetical persuasion lasting but as long as the occasion; yet it was thus powerful, only because it was true, though but for a quarter of an hour perhaps, in the heart of this inspired writer. Mr M, son of the friend of Rousseau to whom he left his manuscripts, and especially his Confessions, to be published after his death, had the goodness to shew them to me. I observed a fair copy written by himself in a small hand like print, very neat and correct; not a blot or an erasure to be seen. The most curious of these papers, however, were several sketch-books, or memoranda, half filled, where the same hand is no longer discernible; but the same genius, and the same wayward temper and perverse intellect, in every fugitive thought which is there put down. Rousseau's composition, like Montesquieu's, was laborious and slow; his ideas flowed rapidly, but were not readily brought into proper order; they did not appear to have come in consequence of a previous plan; but the plan itself, formed afterwards, came in aid of the ideas, and served as a sort of frame for them, instead of being a system to which they were subservient. Very possibly some of the fundamental opinions he defended so earnestly, and for which his disciples would willingly have suffered martyrdom, were originally adopted because a bright thought, caught as it flew, was entered in his commonplace-book. These loose notes of Rousseau afford a curious insight into his taste in composition. You find him perpetually retrenching epithets-reducing his thoughts to their simplest expression-giving words a peculiar energy by the new application of their original meaning-going back to the naïveté of old language; and, in the artificial process of simplicity, carefully effacing the trace of each laborious footstep as he advanced; each idea, each image, coming out at last, as if cast entire at a single throw, original, energetic, and clear. Although Mr I had seen Madame de Staël a child; and I saw her again on her death-bed. The intermediate years were spent in another hemisphere, as far as possible from the months since, with a world in which I am a stranger, and feel that I must remain so, I just saw this celebrated woman, and heard, as it were, her last words, as I had read her works before, uninfluenced by any local bias. another world into this, may be deemed something like Perhaps the impressions of a man thus dropped from those of posterity. Madame de Staël lived for conversation: she was not happy out of a large circle, and a French circle, where she could be heard in her own language to the best advantage. Her extravagant admiration of the society of Paris was neither more nor less than genuine admiration of herself. It was the best mirror she could get. and that was all. Ambitious of all sorts of notoriety, she would have given the world to have been born noble and a beauty. Yet there was in this excessive void of affectation and trick, she made so fair and so vanity so much honesty and frankness, it was so entirely irresistible an appeal to your own sense of her worth, that what would have been laughable in any one else was almost respectable in her. That ambition of eloquence, so conspicuous in her writings, was much less observable in her conversation; there was more abandon in what she said than in what she wrote; while speaking, the spontaneous inspiration was no labour, but all pleasure. Conscious of extraordinary powers, she gave and the deep things, flowing in a full stream from her herself up to the present enjoyment of the good things, own well-stored mind and luxuriant fancy. The inspiration was pleasure, the pleasure was inspiration; and without precisely intending it, she was, every evening of her life, in a circle of company, the very Corinne she had depicted. ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND SERIAL WORKS. We have referred to the continuation of the Cyclopadia of Ephraim Chambers by DR ABRAHAM REES, a dissenting clergyman (1743-1825). This revival was so successful that the publishers of the work agreed with Dr Rees to undertake a new and magnificent work of a similar nature; and in 1802 the first volume of Rees's Cyclopædia was issued, with illustrations in a style of engraving never surpassed in this country. This splendid work extended to forty-five volumes. In 1771 the Encyclopædia Britannica, edited by Mr William Smellie, was published in three volumes. The second edition, commenced in 1776, was enlarged to ten volumes, and embraced biography and history. The third edition, completed in 1797, amounted to eighteen volumes, and was enriched with valuable treatises on Grammar and Metaphysics, by the Rev. Dr Gleig; with profound articles on Mythology, Mysteries, and Philology, by Dr Doig; and with an elaborate view of the philosophy of induction, and contributions in physical science, the alphabetical arrangement certainly the most by Professor Robison. Two supplementary convenient-and arranged its articles in what volumes were afterwards added to this work. A the conductors considered their natural order. fourth edition was issued under the superintend- Coleridge was one of the contributors to this ence of Dr James Millar, and completed in 1810; work; some of its philological articles are ingeit was enriched with some admirable scientific nious. The London Encyclopædia, in twenty treatises from the pen of Professor Wallace. Two volumes royal 8vo, is a useful compendium, other editions, merely nominal, of this Encyclo- and includes the whole of Johnson's Dictionary, padia were published; and a Supplement to the with its citations. Lardner's Cyclopædia is a work was projected by Mr Archibald Constable, collection of different works on natural philosand placed under the charge of Professor Macvey ophy, arts and manufactures, history, biography, Napier. To this Supplement Constable attracted &c., published in 131 small 8vo volumes, issued the greatest names both in Britain and France: monthly. Popular cyclopædias, each in one it contained contributions from Dugald Stewart, large volume, have been published, condensing Playfair, Jameson, Leslie, Mackintosh, Dr Thomas a large amount of information. Of these, Mr Thomson, Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, Ricardo, M'Culloch, the political economist, is author of Malthus, Mill, Professor Wallace, Dr Thomas one on Commerce, and another on Geography; Young, M. Biot, M. Arago, &c. Dugald Stewart Dr Ure on Arts and Manufactures; Mr Brande on was to receive £1000 for his Dissertation on Meta- Science, Literature, and Art; Mr Blaine on Rural physical Philosophy, and Professor Playfair £500 Sports. There is also a series of cyclopædias on for a similar contribution on Natural Philosophy. a larger scale, devoted to the various departments The former actually received £1600; and the of medical science. latter would have received an additional £500 had he lived to complete his treatise. Such large sums had never before been given in Scotland for literary labour. The Supplement was completed in six volumes. In the year 1826, when the Encyclopædia Britannica fell into the hands of Messrs Adam and Charles Black, a new edition of the whole was commenced, incorporating all the articles in the Supplement, with such modifications and additions as were necessary to adjust them to the later views and information applicable to their subjects. Mr Napier was chosen editor, and an assistant in the work of revision and addition was found in Dr James Browne, a man of varied and extensive learning. New and valuable articles were contributed by Sir David Brewster, Mr Galloway, Dr Traill, Dr Roget, Dr John Thomson, Mr Tytler, Professor Spalding, Mr Moir, &c. This great national work-for such it may justly be entitled-was completed in 1842, in twenty-one volumes. Another edition of this Encyclopædia, the eighth, greatly improved, was published in 1859-60, edited by Professor Traill, and enriched with contributions from Lord Macaulay, Sir John Herschel, and other eminent authors. A ninth edition is now (1876) in progress, under the editorial charge of Mr Thomas Spencer Baynes, Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the university of St Andrews. The plan of monthly publication for works of merit, and combining cheapness with elegance, was commenced by Mr Constable in 1827. It had been planned by him two years before, when his active mind was full of splendid schemes; and he was confident that, if he lived for half-a-dozen years, he would make it as impossible that there should not be a good library in every decent house in Britain, as that the shepherd's ingle-nook should want the salt-poke. Constable's Miscellany was not begun till after the failure of the great publisher's house, but it presented some attraction, and enjoyed for several years considerable though unequal success. The works were issued in monthly numbers at a shilling each, and volumes at three shillings and sixpence. Basil Hall's Travels, and Lockhart's Life of Burns, were included in the Miscellany, and had a great sale. The example of this Edinburgh scheme stirred up a London publisher, Mr Murray, to attempt a similar series in the English metropolis. Hence began the Family Library, which was continued for about twelve years, and ended in 1841 with the eightieth volume. Mr Murray made his volumes five shillings each, adding occasionally engravings and wood-cuts, and publishing several works of standard merit-including Washington Irving's Sketch-book, Southey's Life of Nelson, &c. Mr Irving also abridged for this Library his Life of Columbus; Mr Lockhart abridged Scott's Of a more portable and popular form is Life of Napoleon; Scott himself contributed a Chambers's Encyclopædia, a cheap and compre- History of Demonology; Sir David Brewster a hensive dictionary of universal knowledge for Life of Newton; and other popular authors joined the people.' This work, issued by W. & R. as fellow-labourers. Another series of monthly Chambers, was commenced in 1859 and com- volumes was begun in 1833, under the title of pleted in 1868, in ten volumes large octavo. The Sacred Classics, being reprints of celebrated editor, ANDREW FINDLATER, LL.D.—a man of authors whose labours have been devoted to the extensive learning and literary connections- elucidation of the principles of revealed religion. was admirably adapted for such a task; and, Two clergymen-Mr Cattermole and Mr Stebbing with the aid of a body of friendly and able-edited this library, and it was no bad index contributors in every department of literature and science, he succeeded in producing a work of rare excellence and utility, which has commanded a large sale both in this country and in America. A new edition was completed in 1875. A vitiated edition has been published in the United States. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana was begun in 1815, and presented this difference from its rivals, that it departed from to their fitness for the office, that they opened it with Jeremy Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, one of the most able, high-spirited, and eloquent of theological or ethical treatises. The Edinburgh Cabinet Library commenced in 1830, and included a number of valuable works, embodying the latest information and discoveries, chiefly on geographical and historical subjects. The convenience of the monthly mode of publication has recommended it to both publishers and readers: editions of the works of Scott, Miss Edgeworth, Byron, Crabbe, Moore, Southey, the fashionable novels, &c., have been thus issued and circulated in thousands. Old standard authors and grave historians, decked out in this gay monthly attire, have also enjoyed a new lease of popularity Boswell's Johnson, Shakspeare and the elder dramatists, Hume, Smollett, and Lingard, Tytler's Scotland, Cowper, Robert Hall, and almost innumerable other British worthies, have been so published. Those libraries, however-notwithstanding the intentions and sanguine predictions of Constable were chiefly supported by the more opulent and respectable classes. To bring science and literature within the grasp of all, a Society was formed in 1825 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, at the head of which were several statesmen and leading members of the Whig aristocracy-Lords Auckland, Althorp (afterwards Earl Spencer), John Russell, Nugent, Suffield, Mr Henry Brougham (afterwards Lord Brougham), Sir James Mackintosh, Dr Maltby (afterwards Bishop of Durham), Mr Hallam, Captain Basil Hall, &c. Their object was to circulate a series of treatises on the exact sciences, and on various branches of useful knowledge, in numbers at sixpence each. The first was published in March 1827, being A Discourse on the Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, by Mr Brougham. Many of the works issued by this Society were excellent compendiums of knowledge; but the general fault of their scientific treatises was, that they were too technical and abstruse for the working-classes, and were, in point of fact, purchased and read chiefly by those in better stations of life. Another series of works of a higher cast, entitled The Library of Entertaining Knowledge, in four-shilling volumes, also emanated from this Society, as well as a very valuable and extensive series of maps and charts, forming a complete atlas. A collection of Portraits, with biographical memoirs, and an improved description of Almanac, published yearly, formed part of the Society's operations. Their labours were on the whole beneficial; and though the demand for cheap literature was then rapidly extending, the steady impulse and encouragement given to it by a Society possessing ample funds and large influence, must have tended materially to accelerate its progress. It was obvious, however, that the field was only partly occupied, and that large masses, both in the rural and manufacturing districts, were unable either to purchase or understand many of the treatises of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Under this impression, the publishers of the present work commenced, in February 1832, their weekly periodical, Chambers's Journal, consisting of original papers on subjects of ordinary life, science, and literature, and containing in each number a quantity of matter equal to that in a number of the Society's works, and sold at onefourth of the price. The result of this extra 412 ordinary cheapness-and we may honestly add the good quality of the material-was a circulation soon exceeding fifty thousand weekly. The Penny Magazine, a respectable periodical, and the Penny Cyclopædia, were afterwards commenced by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and attained each a very great circulation. There are now numerous other labourers in the same field of humble usefulness; and it is scarcely possible to enter a cottage or workshop without meeting with some of these publications-cheering the leisure moments of the peasant or mechanic, and, by withdrawing him from the operation of the grosser senses, elevating him in the scale of rational beings. We cannot close this section without adverting to the Reviews and Magazines. The Edinburgh Review, started in October 1802 under circumstances elsewhere detailed, was a work entirely new in our literature, not only as it brought talent of the first order to bear upon periodical criticism, but as it presented many original and brilliant disquisitions on subjects of public importance, apart from all consideration of the literary productions of the day. It met with instant success. Of the first number, 750 copies were printed. The demand exceeded this limited supply: 750 more were thrown off, and successive editions followed. In 1808, the circulation had risen to about 9000; and it is believed to have reached its maximum-from which it has declined-in 1813, when 12,000 or 13,000 copies were printed. The Review, we need not say, still occupies an important position in the English world of letters. As it was devoted to the support of Whig politics, the Tory or ministerial party of the day soon felt a need for a similar organ of opinion on their side, and this led to the establishment of the Quarterly Review in 1809. The Quarterly has ever since kept abreast with its northern rival in point of ability, and is said to have outstripped it in circulation. The Westminster Review was established in 1824, by Mr Bentham and his friends, as a medium for the representation of Radical opinions. In talent, as in popularity, this work has been unequal. The same improvement which the Edinburgh Review originated in the critical class of periodicals was effected in the department of the magazines, or literary miscellanies, by the establishment, in 1817, of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, which has been the exemplar of many other similar publications-Fraser's, Tait's (now extinct), the New Monthly, Bentley's Miscellany (extinct), the Dublin University Magazine, Macmillan's Magazine, The Cornhill, Temple Bar, Contemporary Review, Fortnightly Review, &c. These magazines present each month a melange of original articles in light literature, mingled with papers of political disquisition. In all of them there is now literary matter of merit equal to what obtained great reputations in the last century. |