constantly about with him in his walks through town, for the purpose of obliterating all offensive inscriptions which he observed on the walls, especially the famous "No. 45," the mark of the partisans of Wilkes, to whose excesses he strenuously opposed himself, both in this way and by various admonitory pamphlets. On the publication of the second part of his adventures he went to present it at court, in the expectation of being knighted; and soon after offered himself as a candidate to represent the city of London in parliament. Giving out, too, that he had a commission from heaven to preach a general reformation of manners, he made the attempt first amongst the gownsmen at Oxford, and then among the prisoners in Newgate; but in both cases with very little effect. In the midst of these and many other extravagances, he both brought out a second and greatly enlarged edition of his Concordance, and pursued his labours as a corrector of the press, and a fabricator of indexes, with as much steadiness as if his intellect had been perfectly sound; and doubtless it was so when properly exercised. He even managed his worldly affairs with great prudence; and at his death, which took place suddenly in 1770, he left behind him considerable property in bequests to his relations.

Among booksellers who have been likewise men of letters, we ought not to omit the names of the two PANCKOUCKES, father and son, who were both natives of Lille, where the elder carried on business during the early part of last century. He was a person of very considerable learning and talent, and the author of a number of works on subjects of philosophy, history, and belles lettres. His son, Charles Joseph, settled at Paris in the same line with his father, when he was twenty-eight years of age, and eventually became one of the most eminent publishers in that capital. Besides having projected and given to the world the first collected edition of the works of Voltaire, and having borne the chief part in most of the other great literary enterprises undertaken at Paris in his time, he has made his name particularly memorable by the establishment of the "Moniteur," the idea

of which is said to have suggested itself to him from what he saw during a visit to England of the influence of the newspaper press, even at that time. With him also originated the "Encyclopédie Méthodique," only finished a few years ago in above 150 volumes. Panckoucke lived in habits of intimacy with all the most disguished French writers and men of genius of his time. We find, in the published works both of Voltaire and Rousseau, many letters addressed to him by those celebrated men. He was also the author of a considerable number of works, among which may be mentioned translations of Tasso, Ariosto, and Lucretius; philosophical discourses on beauty, pleasure, and pain; treatises on certain subjects connected with finance; and an esteemed dissertation, intended to serve as an introduction to the Natural History of Buffon, of which he was the publisher. FREDERICK ROTHSCHOLTZ of Nuremberg, who flourished in the beginning of last century, was another bookseller who acquired a distinguished name in the world of literature. The list of his productions is very extended, and many of them display great learning. Among them is one in two volumes quarto, entitled, “A Short Essay towards an Ancient and Modern History of Booksellers."

The history of the art of printing has, in our own country at least, been chiefly illustrated by the labours of writers to whom authorship was only a relaxation from the toils of business and an active life. The volumes of tracts on the subject of typography, which originally formed part of the Harleian Library, and are now in the British Museum, were purchased by Lord Oxford from a London bookseller, named JOHN BAGFORD, who had spent a great part of his life in collecting them, and had intended to use them as materials for a History of Printing, for which, in 1709, he published proposals in the Philosophical Transactions. Bagford was in early life a shoemaker, but contrived afterwards to establish himself in business both as a vender and printer of books. SAMUEL PALMER, the author of a General History of Printing, published in 1733, was also himself a printer. Joseph

AMES,. the author of the well-known Typographical Antiquities, as well as of various other antiquarian works, had been originally a plane-maker, and carried on business as a ship-chandler, in Wapping, till his death. Mr. WILLIAM HERBERT, who published an augmented edition of Ames's work, in three volumes quarto, was a map and print seller in London, having formerly carried on business as a hosier. To these names we may add that of Mr. SAMUEL PATERSON, who, having been first a bookseller, became afterwards an auctioneer, and, besides several works in light literature, is known as the author of a learned and valuable catalogue of the best books in all the different departments of study, which appeared in 1786, entitled Bibliotheca Universalis Selecta. But we even owe the art of printing itself, in its different forms, chiefly to persons with whom literature was not a profession, but whose attention was merely attracted to it from the midst of other, and, as is sometimes supposed, uncongenial pursuits. Of the two individuals to whom the invention of the art is generally ascribed, the one, JOHN GUTTENBERG, was a merchant of Strasburg, and the other, JOHN FAUST, was a goldsmith of Mentz. Stereotype printing was the invention of WILLIAM GED, a goldsmith of Edinburgh; and we are indebted for the more recent process, now so well known by the name of Lithography, to M. SENEFELDER, who had spent the earlier part of his life as a strolling actor.

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Most of our readers are probably familiar with IZAAK WALTON'S delightful little work, The Complete Angler," since its simple and natural style, and the unaffected benevolence and love of its author for his subject, together with its fresh and touching pictures of rural landscapes and rural enjoyments, give it many charms even for those who do not care at all for the sport of which it more particularly professes to treat. Walton was during the greater part of his life a linen-draper in London, and kept a shop in Fleet Street. He appears to have received only a very ordinary education; but his love of reading enabled him, even while actually engaged in carrying on his business, to store his mind with a great

variety of information, and so to fit himself for becoming an able and highly interesting writer. The occasion of his first attempting authorship was this:-On the death

of his friend, the celebrated Doctor Donne, it was proposed that the life of that distinguished poet and divine should be written by Sir Henry Wotton; and he employed Walton, as an acquaintance and ardent admirer of the deceased, to collect the necessary materials for that purpose. Sir Henry, however, died before finishing the work, and there was no one to undertake the completion of it but Walton; who having, in these circumstances, been induced to apply himself to the task, produced a very interesting piece of biography, which was placed at the head of the first edition of Donne's Sermons, and has since been frequently reprinted. At this time he was still in business; but a few years after, having attained a competent fortune, he retired, and spent the evening of his life chiefly among his friends in the country, and in those literary occupations for which the success of his first attempt had shown him he was fitted. His next production was a Life of Sir Henry Wotton; and it was followed by those of Hooker, George Herbert, and Bishop Sanderson, all of which was well received by the public, and still rank among the most esteemed pieces of biography in the language. His "Complete Angler" appeared for the first time in 1653, and went through many editions even during the lifetime of the author, who died in 1683, at the age of ninety. In his latter days he published also a poetical work of considerable merit, entitled "Thealma and Clearchus," purporting to be written by John Chalkhill, but which has been recently suspected, on very probable grounds, to have been the production of his own pen.

There is another celebrated name which we may mention here, although it would be out of place for us to attempt even the most rapid sketch of the varied and eventful history of the person to whom it belongs. It is that of DANIEL DEFOE, the immortal author of Robinson Crusoe. Defoe was only twenty-one years of age when he commenced that career of authorship in which he subsequently showed such extraordinary fertility; and was then, and for some time afterwards, engaged in trade, having been at first a horse-factor, and next a maker of