books. Many first editions are not to be purLet no

chased for the triple value of later ones. lover of books be too hastily censured for his passion, which, if he knows to indulge with judgment, is useful. The collector we have noticed frequently said, as is related of Virgil, "I collect gold from Ennius's dung." I find, added he, in some neglected authors, particular things, not elsewhere to be found. He read them, indeed, not with equal attention, but many, as the Latin proverb expresses it, "Sicut Canis ad Nilum bibens et fugiens," like a Dog drinking at the Nile as he runs.

Fortunate are those who only consider a book for its intrinsic merit, and for the utility and pleasure they may derive from its possession. Those students, who, though they know much, wish still to know more, may require this vast sea of books; yet there are many shipwrecks of reason and judgment, which these students suffer in that sea. Those who are satisfied to read for their daily instruction and amusement, or as it is useful to their profession, will not require this vast multiplicity of authors. A few shelves, and a hundred authors, may make their possessor a man of sound learning, of clear judgment, and of the purest taste!

LITERARY JOURNALS.

WHEN, writers were not numerous, and readers rare, the unsuccessful author fell insensibly into

oblivion; he dissolved away in his own weakness; if he committed the private folly of printing what no one would purchase, he was not arraigned at the public tribunal-and the awful terrors of his day of judgment, consisted only in the retributions of his publisher's final accounts. At length, a taste for literature spread through the body of the people, Vanity induced the inexperienced and the ignorant to aspire to literary honours. To oppose these forcible entries into the haunts of the Muses, Periodical Criticism brandished its formidable weapon; and the fall of many, taught some of our greatest geniuses to rise. Multifarious writings produced multifarious strictures, and criticism reached to such perfection that taste was so generally diffused, as to enlighten those whose occupationa had otherwise never permitted them to judge of literary compositions.

The invention of REVIEWS, in the form which they have at length gradually assumed, could not have existed but in the most polished ages of Literature; for without a constant supply of Authors and a refined spirit of Criticism, they could not excite a perpetual interest among the lovers of Literature. These publications are the chronicles of Taste and Science, and present the existing state of the public mind, while they form a ready resource for those idle hours, which men of letters do not chuse to pass idly.

Their multiplicity has undoubtedly produced much evil; the lowest minds, the venal drudges of Literature, have manufactured Reviews; hence that shameful discordance of opinion, which is the scorn and scandal of Criticism. Passions hostile to the peaceful truths of Literature have likewise made tremendous inroads in the Republic, and every literary virtue has been lost!

These works may disgust by vapid panegyric, or offend by acrimonious invective; they may weary by uniform dulness, or tantalize by superficial knowledge. They are sometimes merely written to catch the public attention, and a malignity is indulged against authors, merely to season the work with a caustic relish. A Reviewer has admired those works in private, which he condemned in his official capacity! But good sense, good temper, and good taste, will ever form an estimable Journalist, whose candour will inspire confidence, and whose judgment will give stability to his. decisions.

These volumes when they have outlived their year, are purchased at a very humble price; yet to the lover of literature they are not unimportant. They constitute a great portion of literary history, and are indeed the annals of the republic. GIBBON feasted on them; and while he turned them over with constant pleasure, derived from their Source accurate notions of Works, which no Student can

himself have verified: of many works a notion is sufficient, but this notion is necessary.

To our own Reviews, we must add the old foreign journals, which are perhaps even more valuable to the Man of Letters. Of these the variety is considerable, and the information they contain highly desirable. They delight our curiosity by opening a variety of new views, and light up in observing minds many projects of works, to be desiderated in our own literature.

The Origin of so many Literary Journals, was the happy project of DENIS de SALLO, a Counsellor in the Parliament of Paris. In 1665 appeared his Journal des Sçavans. He published his Essay in the name of the Sieur de Hedouville, his footman! Whether this was a mere stroke of humour, or designed to insinuate that the freedom of his criticism might be allowed, on account of its supposed author, is not ascertained. The work, however, met with so favourable a reception, that SALLO had the satisfaction of seeing it, the following year, imitated throughout Europe, and his journal, at the same time, translated into various languages. But as most authors must lay themselves open to the acute critic, the animadversions of SALLO were given with such asperity of criticism, and such malignity of wit, that this new Journal excited loud murmurs, and the most heartmoving complaints. The learned had their plagia

risms detected, and the Wit, had his claims disputed. Sarasin called the gazettes of this new Aristarchus, Hebdomadary Flim-Flams! Billevezèes hebdomadaires! and Menage, having published a law-book, which Sallo had treated with severe raillery, he entered into a long argument to prove, according to Justinian, that a lawyer is not allowed to defame another lawyer, &c. Senatori maledicere non licet, remaledicere jus fasque est. Others loudly declaimed against this new species of imperial tyranny, and this attempt to regulate the public opinion by that of an individual. Sallo, after having published only his third volume, felt the irritated wasps of literature thronging so thick about him, that he very gladly abdicated the throne of criticism.

Intimidated by the fate of SALLO, his successor, Abbé GALLOIS, flourished in a milder reign. He contented himself with giving the titles of books, accompanied with extracts; and he was more useful than interesting. The public, who had been so much amused by the raillery and severity of the founder of this dynasty of new critics, now murmured at the want of that salt and acidity by which they had relished the fugitive collation. They were not satisfied in having the most beautiful, or the most curious parts of a new work brought together; they wished for the unreasonable entertainment of railing and raillery. At length another objection