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assiste journellement aux ventes de Livres, les examine tous sans en connoître peut-être aucun, encherit, non comme un Amateur intelligent, mais comme un homme riche, prêt à acheter au poids de l'or des volumes dont il n'a que faire, tandis qu'il en soustrait l'acquisition à un Connoisseur qui en a besoin. De retour chez lui cet avide et insatiable enchérisseur met ses premiers soins à donner une place à ces nouveaux livres i les touche peut-être pour la dernière fois ». P. 18, 19. Mais après tout ce qu'on dit de la Bibliomanie, c'est le plus sensible et le plus interessant de tous les Manies du Jour » Extracted (as above) from Triphook's Catalogue for 1821. N.o 156 (1),

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This title, and judiciously-written Extract, give an opportunity of saying a few cursory words on Bibliography. It is difficult exactly to define where utility ends, and mere whim begins, in this science. It cannot be questioned that a great number of very learned and very ingenious early Books are little known, and of infrequent occurrence: though there may be numerous volumes, which have no other value than that of their rarity. The rarity may consist in the work itself; or in the edition only in either case the just value of that rarity must follow the intrinsic character of the matter. There are gord reasons for preferring an editio princeps, when the production itself has merit.

But the Bibliographical Notices, which are compiled for the purpose of literature, are formed upon quite different principles, and with quite different views from those made by Booksellers for the purpose of forwarding the sale of the articles of their trade. A Book may have very little value in commerce, which is exceedingly curious to the scholar, the critic, the historian, or the antiquary: - - and the reverse as often happens. Nor is it from the value of the (1) See Santander's Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 169.

articles taken separately; but from the recognition, the new combination, the juxta-position, that the mind is exercised and gratified; and a recurrence to the test of ancient opinions and ancient forms of language promoted and facilitated.

An author, whose name is familiar to us only by slight, though frequent, mention, scattered through the volumes. of general literature, or by references still more brief and enigmatical, is brought into prominent observation by the pen of a judicious Bibliographer; and he, who has neither time nor opportunity to collect, what lies scattered among the masses of so many volumes in so many countries, may thus obtain a fund of information, which every highlycultivated mind will know how to appreciate.

Volumes beyond enumeration, of great interest, may be collected, which bear a low price, because no one has şet the fashion of enquiring for them.

Gibbon once intended to have compiled a Catalogue Raisonn'e, of the works used in his great History. How inestimably curious and instructive would such a compi lation have been?

XXIX.

QUALITIES OF THE HISTORIAN AND POET

DIFFERENT.

The Historian and Biographer have to perform a task very different from that of the poet. Their judgement and their memory are more called into exercise than their fancy;

and their imagination cannot operate at all, except under the very strictest controul. It may sometimes under this controul, be a lamp to them in penetrating motives, and laying open what the veil of time has covered. We therefore sometimes see men who had not sufficient brilliance of genius to excell in Poetry, to which they aspired early in life, afterwards become eloquent and admirable in History. Such was Lord Clarendon, who has recorded in the Memoirs of Himself, that his early life was spent in the company of Ben Jonson, Waller, Carew, Cotton, Sydney Godolphin, Lord Falkland, etc.

It was this society, and the cultivation of the studies which it fostered, that gave to this great Statesman such an insight into the human character. The formal parts of History convey as little instruction, as delight.

Lord Clarendon's merit is the more extreordinary, because his was cotemporary history.

« Time << say the Edinburgh critics » performs the same services to events, which, distance does to visible objects. It obscures, and gradually annihilates the small; but renders those, that are very great, much more distinct and conceivable. If we would know the true forms and bearings of a range of Alpine mountains, we must not grovel among the irregularities of its surface; but observe from the distance of leagues the directions of its ridges and peaks; and the giant outline, which it traces on the sky (1)

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On the contrary, there are great evils in the mode of composing After-histories for the purposes of mere fame or vendibility.

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« C'est la malice » ( says Bayle) « c'est l'animosité, bien l'envie de s'accommoder au goût populaire, et d'en tirer du profit, qui engagent a falsifier les relations (2) ».

(1) Edinb. Rev. N.° LX. Sept. 1818, p. 278.

(2) Bayle, art. Du BELLAI, Note F.

XXXI.

SPENSER.

Spenser has language for all that appears to have presented itself to his mind. The distinctness, the brilliance, the copiousness of his imagery, is amazing. The variety, the flow; the energy; the swell of his versification, have never been rivalled. He wants the deep, and gloomy sublimity of Dante he wants his concise and overwhelming pathos. His imagination was so multitudinous, that. it sometimes verged on the Fantastic.

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XXXII.

DEMI-ANCIENTS.

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The following observations by Le Clerc in his Criticism on J. A. Campanus, regarding those whom he calls « Demi-Ancients,» is worth extracting.

« Les Auteurs Italiens du temps de Jean-Antoine Campano, qui fleurissoit au milieu du quinzième siècle, un peu avant et un peu après l'invention de l'Imprimerie, font à présent un effet tout particulier sur nôtre imagination. Nous

né les regardons, ni comme des Modernes, ni comme des Anciens; mais comme je ne sai quoi, qui tient le milieu. Nous nous intéressons dans leur histoire, beaucoup plus que dans celle de habiles gens qui ont vécu de nôtre temps; et nous n'avons néanmoins par pour eux le respect, que nous avons pour ce qui nous appellons l'Antiquité. C'est ce qui a fait que quelcun de ma connoissance les a nommez Demianciens, et peut-être que dans quelques centaines d'années, l'éloignement les fera confondre avec ceux, qui ont vêcu long-temps avant eux. Parmi ces Auteurs, à qui l'on commence à rendre en partie le respect, que l'on a pour l'Antiquité, je ne mets que ceux qui ont eu quelque goût pour les Ecrits des meilleurs siècles, qu'ils ont tâché d'imiter; car pour les Scholastiques, leurs obscures réveries, habillées d'une latinité tout à fait barbare, ne sont plus au goût que de ceux qui leur ressemblent; ou qui ne sont choquez ni de ce qui blesse le Bon - Sens, ni de ce qui blesse les oreilles accoûtumées à un meilleur stile.

La considération, que l'on a pour les Demi – anciens, pour continuer à me servir de ce mot a fait que l'on a reçu avec beaucoup de plaisir toutes les nouvelles Editions des Auteurs Italiens; qui ont vêcu depuis le commencement du quinziéme siècle, jusqu'au milieu du seizième, et qui ont écrit avec quelque politesse. Comme les Belles-Lettres commencèrent à renaître en Italie, et que l'on a de l'empressement pour toutes les nouveautez, il y eut alors une infinité de gens, qui écrivirent, avec beaucoup d'elegance, des Lettres, des Harangues, des Histoires, et des Vers, en Latin; entre lesquels fut Campano. On n'étoit pas encore alors assez savant, pour faire des Ouvrages de Critique et de Philologie; comme ceux que l'on fit depuis, pour éclaircir ce qu'il y a de plus obscur dans l'Antiquité. Le savoir consistoit principalement à pouvoir écrire poliment, en vers et en prose; plûtôt qu'à expliquer les tenebres des

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