冷静に ON BOOKS AND BOOK-BUYERS. BY JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D. "I say we have despised literature; what do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses? If a man spends lavishly on his library, you call him mad—a bibliomaniac. But you never call one a horse-maniac, though men ruin themselves every day by their horses, and you do not hear of people ruining themselves by their books. Or, to go lower still, how much do you think the contents of the bookshelves of the United Kingdom, public and private, would fetch, as compared with the contents of its wine-cellars? What position would its expenditure on literature take as compared with its expenditure on luxurious eating? We talk of food for the mind, as of food for the body: now, a good book contains such food inexhaustibly: it is provision for life, and for the best part of us; yet how long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it! Though there have been men who have pinched their stomachs and bared their backs to buy a book, whose libraries were cheaper to them, I think, in the end, than most men's dinners are. We are few of us put to such a trial, and more the pity; for, indeed, a precious thing is all the more precious to us if it has been won by work or economy; and if public libraries were half as costly as public dinners, or books cost the tenth part of what bracelets do, even foolish men and women might sometimes suspect there was good in reading as well as in munching and sparkling ; whereas the very cheapness of literature is making even wiser people forget that if a book is worth reading it is worth buying.”—Sesame AND LILIES, OR KINGS' TREASURES. CHATTO & WINDUS, 74 & 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. DVERTISING, A HISTORY OF, from the Earliest Times. "We have here a book to be thankful for. Among the many interesting illustrations is a photographed copy of the Times for January 1st, 1788, which may be easily read by means of a magnifying glass. We recommend the present volume, which takes us through antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the present time, illustrating all in turn by advertisements-serious, comic, roguish, or downright rascally. The chapter on swindles and hoaxes' is full of entertainment; but of that the volume itself is full from the first page to the last."-Athenæum. ESOP'S FABLES TRANSLATED into HUMAN NATURE. By C. H. BENNETT. Crown 4to, 24 Plates beautifully printed in Colours, with descriptive Text, cloth extra, gilt, 6s. "For fun and frolic the new version of Esop's Fables must bear away the palm. There are plenty of grown-up children who like to be amused; and if this new version of old stories does not amuse them they must be very dull indeed, and their situation one much to be commiserated."-Morning Post. ARTEMUS WARD, COMPLETE.- The Works of CHARLES FARRER BROWNE, better known as ARTEMUS WARD. With fine Portrait, facsimile of Handwriting, &c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d. "The author combines the powers of Thackeray with those of Albert Smith. The salt is rubbed in with a native hand-one which has the gift of tickling."-Saturday Review. AS PRETTY AS SEVEN, and other Popular German Stories. Collected by LUDWIG BECHSTEIN. With Additional Tales by the Brothers GRIMM, and roo Illustrations by RICHTER. Small 4to, green and gold, 6s. 6d. ; gilt edges, 7s. 6d. "These tales are pure and healthful; they will shed over childhood a rosy light, and strew the path with stars and flowers, the remembrance of which will last through life."-Preface. ASTLE ON WRITING. THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING, as well Hieroglyphic as Elementary, Illustrated by Engravings taken from Marbles, Manuscripts, and Charters, Ancient and Modern; also Some Account of the Origin and Progress of Printing. By THOMAS ASTLE, F.R.S., F.A.S., late Keeper of Records in the Tower of London. Royal 4to, half-Roxburghe, with 33 Plates (some Coloured), price £1 155. A few Large Paper copies, roy. folio, half-Roxburghe, the Plates altogether unfolded, £3 35. "The completest work on the subject of writing in this or any other language." B |AKER.-CLOUDS IN THE EAST: Travels and Adventures on the Perso-Turkoman Frontier. By VALENTINE Baker. With Maps and Illustrations, coloured and plain, from Original Sketches. Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 18s. [In the press. BANKERS, A HANDBOOK OF LONDON; with some Account of their Predecessors, the Early Goldsmiths; together with Lists of Bankers, from the Earliest London Directory, printed in 1677, to that of the London Post-Office Directory of 1876. By F. G. HILTON PRICE. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 75. 6d. BARDSLEY'S OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: Their Sources and Significations. By CHArles Wareing Bardsley, M.A. SECOND EDITION, revised throughout, considerably Enlarged, and partially rewritten. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 95. "Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediæval documents and works from which the origin and development of surnames can alone be satisfactorily traced. He has furnished a valuable contribution to the literature of surnames, and we hope to hear more of him in this field."-Times. BEAUTIFUL PICTURES BY BRITISH ARTISTS: A Gathering of Favourites from our Picture Galleries. In Two Series. The FIRST SERIES including Examples by WILKIE, CONSTABLE, TURNER, MULREADY LANDSEER, MACLISE, E. M. WARD, FRITH, Sir JOHN GILBERT, LESLIE, ANSDELL, MARCUS STONE, Sir NOEL PATON, FAED, EYRE CROWE, GAVIN, O'NEIL, and MADOX BROWN. The SECOND containing Pictures by ARMYTAGE, FAED, GOODALL, HEMSLEY, HORSLEY, MARKS, NICHOLLS, Sir NOEL PATON, PICKERSGILL, G. SMITH, MARCUS STONE, SOLOMON, STRAIGHT, E. M. WARD, and WARREN. All engraved on Steel in the highest style of Art. Edited, with Notices of the Artists, by SYDNEY ARMYTAGE, M.A. Price of each Series, imperial 4to, cloth extra, gilt and gilt edges, 215. Each Volume is Complete in itself. "This book is well got up, and good engravings by Jeens, Lumb Stocks, and others, bring back to us pictures of Royal Academy Exhibitions of past years."— Times. BLAKE'S WORKS.-A Series of Reproductions in Facsimile of the Works of WILLIAM BLAKE, including the "Songs of Innocence and Experience," "The Book of Thel," " America," "The Vision of the Daughters of Albion," "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," "Europe, a Prophecy," "Jerusalem," "Milton," "Urizen," "The Song of Los," &c. These Works will be issued both coloured and plain. [In preparation. "Blake is a real name, I assure you, and a most extraordinary man he is, if he still be living. He is the Blake whose wild designs accompany a splendid edition of Blair's Grave.' He paints in water-colours marvellous strange picturesvisions of his brain-which he asserts he has seen. They have great merit. I must look upon him as one of the most extraordinary persons of the age."- CHARLES LAMB. BLANCHARD'S (Laman) POEMS. Now first Collected. Edited, with a Life of the Author (including numerous hitherto unpublished Letters from Lord LYTTON, LAMB, DICKENS, ROBERT BROWNING, and others), by BLANCHARD JERROLD. Crown 8vo, with a Vignette Portrait, cloth extra, gs. "His humorous verse is much of it admirable-sparkling with genuine esprit, and as polished and pointed as Praed's."—Scotsman. As Addison and Steele reflected their own generations, so has Laman Blanchard in his sketches mirrored forth the variable and motley peculiarities of the present day; they have but to be read to be admired."-Sun. BLEWITT. THE ROSE AND THE LILY: A Story. By BOUDOIR BALLADS: Vers de Société. By J. ASHBY STERRY. BRET HARTE'S CHOICE WORKS in Prose and Poetry. With Introductory Essay by J. M. BELLEW, Portrait of the Author, and 50 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 75. 62. "Not many months before my friend's death, he had sent me two sketches by a young American writer (Bret Harte), far away in California (The Outcast of Poker Flat, and another), in which he had found such subtle strokes of character as he had not anywhere else in late years discovered; the manner resembling himself, but the matter fresh to a degree that had surprised him; the painting in all respects masterly, and the wild rude thing painted a quite wonderful reality. I have rarely known him more honestly moved."-FORSTER'S Life of Dickens. A BREWSTER'S (Sir David) MARTYRS OF SCIENCE. New Edition, in small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with full-page Portraits, 4s. 6d. BREWSTER'S (Sir David) MORE WORLDS THAN ONE, the Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian. A New Edition, in small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with full-page Astronomical Plates, 45. 6d. "There does certainly exist a wide-spread desire to know, so far as can be known, the extent of God's living, responsible creation. The planet which we inhabit is but one vessel in the midst of a fleet sailing on through the vast ocean of space, under convoy of the sun. Far on the distant horizon what seem to be a great many other convoy ships appear, though such is their remoteness that even our best glasses enable us to know very little regarding them. But in the vessels of the same group as ourselves, we see evolutions similar to those which our own ship performs-we see them maintain relations similar to our own to the great guardian vessel in the midst-we see them regulated by her in all their movements, and that when night falls dark most of them have their sets of lanthorns hoisted up to give them light; and there is a desire among us to know somewhat respecting the crews of these neighbouring vessels of ours, and whether as we all seem bound on a common voyage-the expedition, as it is evidently under one and the same control, may not have a common purpose or object to accomplish."-HUGH MILLER. BRIC-À-BRAC HUNTER (The); or, Chapters on Chinamania. By Major H. BYNG HALL. With Photographic Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt (from a special and novel design), ios. 6d. "This is a delightful book. His hints respecting marks, texture, finish, and character of various wares will be useful to amateurs. By all who are interested in chinamania will be most warmly appreciated-a very amusing and chatty volume." Standard. BRILLAT SAVARIN'S PHYSIOLOGY OF TASTE. Translated into English, with an Introduction and Notes. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. [In the press. |