To Bibliomaniacs the following advice may be more acceptable.

"A lover of fine books, and in particular of fine Bibles, will not fail to secure good copies of the impressions by Field, Hayes, Basket, and Baskerville; and if he deals in oddities or capricious deviations from the established Texts he will purchase many a curious antecedent impression."

"A word, and but little more than a word, respecting GREEK TESTAMENTS." These are recommended

"The Complutensian impression and the first two of Erasmus 1516, 1519, the parent texts of Stephen 1550, folio, and the Elzevir 1524, 12mo. To these let the critical editions of Bengel, 1734, 4to. Wetstein, 1751, folio, Griesbach, 1796, 8vo. Matthei, 1782, 8vo. and Alter, 1786, 8vo. be added."

We cannot refuse a place to the concluding!! No man, unless it be between the ages of twenty and three-score, can escape from the infection of such amiable enthusiasm.

"Here (in the department of the New Testament alone) the ten folios of Erasmus stand in one compact body of Russia binding; there, the ornate Stephanine text, coated in old French morocco, with mellow gilt tooling, from the duodecimo O Mirificam to the reprint of the last folio edition, catches and comforts his (the Bibliomaniac's) rejoicing eye! Yonder are all the Elzevirs, uncut, in primitive state of vellum binding; terminated by the diminutive Sedan and incomparable Bleau! Beneath are the lusty folios of Gregory, Mill, and Kuster, all in good old Oxford bindings upon LARGE and lovely paper; such as we must almost depair to see revived in these degenerate days.'"

If so tempting a panorama as this, will not make the study of divinity (bindings) popular, and ease the groaning shelves of Messrs. Payne, Triphook, and Co., we know not what will. Having done as much as our limits will allow on the subject of the Scriptures, both for the public and the trade, we must be very brief in the subordinate branches of divinity.

Of the LITURGY Mr. Dibdin says, that "there is little, bibliographically speaking, which can be advanced upon the subject." And again,

"Stripped of the mummery of idle forms, and communicating directly with the hearts, our rationale (we presume he means rituale) of public prayers has been seldom criticized, even by the bitterest of its assailants, without respect, or meditated upon without profit."

Without at all alluding to the alterations which our Liturgy underwent in different reigns, and which must necessarily render

the various editions of the Book of Common Prayer exceedingly interesting to the divine, (a character not hitherto introduced by Mr. Dibdin,) it is said,

"I can, however, do little more than make brief mention of editions of PRAYER Books, beginning with the first impression in 1549, in folio, published in the reign of Edward VI.; but which of these three impressions, of the same dominical year, and sometimes month, is to be considered as the parent text, I will not pretend to determine....From the time of this edition to that of the more recent publications, the number, character, and form of Prayer Books is (are) without end.”

Not one word of the second book of Edward, of the reprint of it with alterations by Elizabeth, of the augmented text of James I. and of Charles II.!

"At last Baskerville, whose Bible has just been the theme of our admiration, put forth four editions of the Book of Common Prayer, three in octavo, and one in duodecimo; each of which still maintains a certain distinction in price. They are all lovely specimens of press-work; and I cannot bring myself to blame the custom of a most respectable country squire, in the vicinity of Oxford, who would never read the service, and make the responses at Church, out of any other edition but that of the double-columned octavo Baskerville, nor carry any other devotional Manual with him to the altar, than that of the duodecimo Baskerville."

This is so effectual a mode of "imparting a moral feeling to the gratification of a literary taste," that if we were not seduced by the temptation of a note below, from which our readers may derive some benefit, we should here close our extracts from the chapter on "PRAYER BOOKS." The note is this:

"Of the Bible edited by Mr. Reeves, there was one copy only struck off Upon vellum. At the present moment, this membranaceous treasure, superbly bound in dark blue morocco, with joints, borders of gold,' &c. by C. Lewis, in nine quarto volumes, reposes upon the shelves of Messrs. Payne and Foss: but he who will give fifty-two sovereigns for the same, shall cause it to rouse from its present slumber. Nor let such a price be considered as having any affinity to extravagance." P. 44.

Now, on this subject we can and will "a tale unfold." We know the Goth who actually purchased this very membranaceous treasure (without its casket indeed) at Messrs. White and Cochrane's sale for thirteen pounds (if we remember right,) and—dare he avow it?-his only reason for giving even this small sum for a book which was originally intended to be illuminated, not to be read, was only that he might rescue a copy of THE BIBLE from the hands of a petty Bibliopolist, who threatened, if no one bid

more than he, to purchase it for the tailors, and make a profit by its sale for their ignoble purposes. The bookseller of this same anti-bibliomaniac negotiated for him an exchange, by which he obtained the same work on paper "bound in russia,' and a copy of Brian Walton's Polyglot to boot. This little history may serve book collectors of all ages, as a hint to beware of determining the real value of a "very choice, curious, or supposed unique article.”

Nor let human aid be

"FATHERS AND COMMENTATORS. wanting to give effect to divine wisdom. Let there be a choice edition or two (!) of the FATHERS, and of the more celebrated ancient COMMENTATORS." As Mr. Dibdin has here no comforting or guiding note, we will just add, secundum artem, that in Messrs. Rivington and Cochrane's Catalogue is the following item. "A COLLECTION OF ALL THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH CONTAINED IN DR. HARWOOD'S LIST. Best edition of each Author, fine copies, many of them bound uniformly in calf extra, m. l. (from sheets) altogether 137 volumes, viz. 126 vols. folio, 4 vols. 4to. and 7 vols. 8vo. 315 1." Must we then have two editions? or even two sets, to speak more properly?

The names of a few OLD ENGLISH DIVINES are mentioned, and such notes as this subjoined:

"And I beseech the theological collector not to let a fine copy of good old Matthew Poole's Synopsis Criticorum, Lond. 1669, folio, five volumes; especially if it is such a (an) one as Mr. Payne now possesses-Utr. 1684. ed. opt.-slip through his fingers without becoming master of it; for it is obtainable at a reasonable price."

As it is impossible to abbreviate Mr. Dibdin's observations on our old Divines with justice to either party, we pass on to the head of "SERMONS," under which we find about eight closely printed pages of curious extracts from the works of Latimer, Fox, Drant, and Edgeworth, a Roman Catholic divine.

"MODERN SERMONS. In coming at once to the notice of Sermons in the eighteenth century, I shall not be accused," says our author, "of an unhappy choice in the recommendation of those of Clarke, Seed, South, Sherlock, Jortin, Porteus, Horsley, Paley, and Gisborne. I admit there are some shades of difference, both doctrinal and practical, in these excellent performances; but I am sure there is enough of CHRIST in all of them to make us better men, and to bring us nearer to salvation."

The whole of the "Summary of FOREIGN DIVINES" is contained in this single paragraph.

"In foreign schools of divinity the same (similar) great lights have appeared to check the fury of human rashness, and to shew forth' the

cause of Christian redemption. Who does not love the amenity of Erasmus, and the philanthropy of Melancthon? each of whom in turn seemed to hold the scales of moderation and Christian charity, in order to prevent Luther and Eckius from engaging in more than a war of words.'

Under the separate title, however, of "FRENCH DIVINES," the well-known works of Fenelon, Bossuet, Massillon, Bourdaloue, and Saurin are praised;-no others mentioned.

Among the observations on " ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY" the reader may be startled by reading such as this:

"I will be free to say that that collector, be he young, or be he old, may thank his happy stars who shall possess the fifty-three folios of which that still unfinished and gigantic work (the ACTA SANCTORUM) is composed, at the price of so many sovereigns."

The last chapter but one, just out of the department of Divinity, though very short, we hold to be by many degrees the best; but we prefer on this, and on all occasions, to let Mr. Dibdin speak for himself.

"I am fully sensible," says he, "that this notice of authors who have enriched the literature and promoted the religion of our country is abundantly jejune (copiously empty, Ash.) and incomplete; and that a very limited knowledge of this portion of divinity may readily supply more ample and more valuable details. But not only must there be limits 'sunt certi denique fines,' but a recollection that this work is not an EXCLUSIVE performance, either devoted entirely to theology, or to such as have made great progress in their biblical studies and collections."

We shall only take leave to apply this to all the preceding chapters, and express our entire concurrence with Mr. Dibdin in his estimate of his own labours.

Under the next and last head, that of "MANUALS OF DEVOTION," (which seems misplaced, or to have been an after thought,) there is a very curious and interesting notice of a work entitled the "Monument of Matrons, containing seven several Lamps of Divinity," and published "in the year 1582, when our VIRGIN QUEEN was in the very zenith of her glory."

Having thus given as good an account as we could of the Text of the "Library Companion," we shall not offer any more specimens of the notes than those which have already been incidentally referred to. The notes are, in truth, with few exceptions, little more than extracts from the Catalogues of Messrs. Payne and Foss; Longman and Co.; J. and A. Arch; Rivington and Cochrane; Ogle, Duncan and Ogle; Triphook, Thorpe,

and Bohn. It is enough for us to enumerate these respectable booksellers, and to say, what every body knows, that their catalogues are at all times accessible to the book buyer.

We have said before that a mixture of heterogeneous matter is not pleasing to our taste: we therefore cannot admire the serio-comic style in which the "Divinity" department of Mr. Dibdin's work is put together. Such incongruities as strike the eye on the first opening of this volume, produce a very disagreeable effect upon a sober mind.

In addition to the want of taste, if that be the proper term, which we have ventured to point out, there is also a want of accuracy in the writing which cannot but cause some surprise. In the quotations we have made, several inaccuracies have occurred, and there are many more, which, if it were necessary, we could adduce. Now, as book making in all its branches was the subject of the author, we had every reason to expect a fair specimen of the art. Attention to the rules of Syntax and the graces of rhetoric would not, we think, have diminished the value of a work recommending to us the delicacies of typography and all the varied charms of bibliopoietical skill. We are not among those who would quarrel for a comma's sake, when there is a single redeeming excellence to note; we shall therefore only hint, that if Mr. Dibdin desire to see his book generally "clad in goodly calf or russia," a fly leaf of errata and emendata would perhaps accelerate the accomplishment of his wish.

If we must assume the office of the "Young Man's Guide” to the "Library Companion," we should say, pass over our boundaries as quickly as you can; peep into History, Voyages and Travels, Biography, Philology, Belles Lettres, Poetry, the Drama, you will be much amused.' If we are to contribute to the "Old Man's Comfort," we shall tell him that this is not a work to occupy many of his precious moments.'

Bibliotheca Biblica: a Select List of Books on Sacred Literature; with Notices Biographical, Critical, and Bibliographical. By WILLIAM ORME, Author of Memoirs of John Owen, D.D. 8vo. 492. pp. 12s. Longman. 1824.

ALTHOUGH We should not choose to affirm that Mr. Orme's biblical catalogue is either unexceptionable or sufficient, we do not hesitate to say that it is likely to be useful to lovers of sacred