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*ARVALD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

45*310

J. Billing, Printer and Stereotyper, Guildford, Surrey.

NOTICE TO PART THE SECOND.

Ir was not the Publisher's intention to write any more premonitions until the conclusion of the work, when all he might have to say would be included in a general preface; but numerous communications, public and private, seem to require earlier recognition.

Some well-meant advisers have suggested the omission of what they deemed unimportant articles of past literature, and the substitution of works of modern date. But they overlook the declared principle of the present edition, which is, that it shall be a faithful, though revised and enlarged, reprint of its predecessor, without omissions of any kind, and that Modern Literature (whether omitted by Lowndes or subsequent to the period when he wrote) is to form a Supplementary Volume. Besides which, were it even advisable to omit anything on account of worthlessness, it would be extremely difficult to determine what belongs to this category. Every bibliographer knows the importance which an apparently worthless volume sometimes acquires by adventitious circumstance. It may establish a date or a fact, and settle a vast amount of controversy. A supposed piece of waste paper might fix an important epoch in the history of engraving or printing, and an old book cover, (such as was once heedlessly thrown away) determine, with an approximation to certainty, the period of the first block-books. These reasons must serve as an answer to those who advocate omissions.

Some have regretted the paucity of literary and critical notices; but these are far more numerous in Lowndes than in any other book of the kind, and do not, besides, strictly belong to bibliography, but rather to literary history and biography. No doubt an alphabetical arrangement of pithy extracts from reviews would be a very agreeable as well as convenient repertory, but such a work, to answer its purpose, would require to be four times as large as it is proposed to make the present.

Other critics or correspondents, who are pleased to admit my capabilities, wonder that I should tie myself to Lowndes,

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NOTICE TO PART THE SECOND.

and not rather make a new and perfect book in my own name. To these I reply, that the labour required to make anything like a perfect Manual of Bibliography, is, both physically and mentally, far beyond what would be conceived by those who have not engaged in such duties, while the requital of even a successful achievement would be below what might be derived from the most ordinary pursuit. Dr. Watt, author of the 'Bibliotheca Britannica,' exhausted in health and pocket by his herculean labour, died on the eve of its completion, nor did it yield any benefit either to his successors or publishers; and Lowndes, after years of unwearied exertion, died in distress. Many more such examples might be adduced.

There would be no difficulty in making a perfect book,—as far as anything human can be perfect-were the appliances sufficient; but nothing less than a liberal and independent appointment from the Crown can ever provide a stimulus adequate to the desired object. It would be possible to register and describe, under one alphabet, every book known to literature, and to indicate the particular libraries where they are to be found; and, if undivided attention could be bestowed on such an object, it might be accomplished in a very few years. Manuscripts might. be treated in the same manner, and classed Indexes to the whole follow. But such a happy consummation is rather to be sighed for than expected meanwhile the literary public will, it is hoped, take in good part the installment now made in a right direction.

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The present part is enlarged and corrected on every page, as will be evident on comparison. Among the articles which have undergone more especial attention may be enumerated: British Museum, Britton, Brougham, Brydges (Sir Egerton), Bunyan, Butler (Sam.), Byron, Caxton, Chaucer, Coleridge, Costume, Cook (Capt.), Cooke (W. B.), Cowper, Crabbe, Crighton, &c. All continuations and new editions of books mentioned by Lowndes, have, as far as possible, been indicated, and frequent additions made of the auction prices of rare and early printed volumes. Indeed, all has been done that could well be done, without reconstructing the whole work, and the Publisher only hopes that he may be able to go through his task with as little cause of compliant as he has yet encountered. The publication was undertaken, more as a boon to his confrêres and to literary men, than as an object of mercantile profit, and he trusts it will be received as such.

April 30, 1858.

HENRY G. BOHN.

LOWNDES' PREFACE,

WRITTEN JANUARY 1, 1834.

In proportion to the advancement and general diffusion of literature ought to be the publication of references to, and accounts of, the multifarious works with which the genius of past and of the present times has enlightened and benefited mankind. BIBLIOGRAPHY, or a knowledge of particular books, the peculiarities of editions, their value, and what may be termed an intimate acquaintance with the history and character of a work, has, however, been singularly neglected in this country; and rich as our literature is in most departments, that particular class, on which all others are in a great degree dependent, is confessedly deficient. In France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Holland, numerous volumes have been written on the literary history of those several countries, together with others on universal literature; but in England, excepting a few catalogues of books on particular subjects, no general Bibliographical work deserving the name was ever published until the appearance of the "Bibliotheca Britannica" by Watt, which will be again alluded to. It is not intended to explain the cause of the low state of Bibliographical knowledge in England; but it may, perhaps, be partly ascribed to the folly of acquiring, at enormous prices, works which are no otherwise valuable than for their rarity, consisting, as that rarity sometimes does, in a colophon or the name of a printer, the texture or colour of the paper, the width of the margin, the occurrence or omission of a date, or even in an obvious defect. Mankind are disposed to remember the abuse rather than the utility of pursuits in which few are deeply interested; and in the ridicule which the enthusiastic zeal of bibliomaniacs has cast on Bibliography, they lose sight of the fact, that all accurate knowledge is in a greater or less degree absolutely dependent thereon.

The accumulated wisdom of ages is deposited in Books; can there, then, be more useful information than that by which these repositories of knowledge are rendered available to the world by proper classification, separating the valuable from the worthless, and presenting the student with a convenient and trustworthy

guide to the respective sources? Bibliography is, in truth, the mariner's compass of learning; for without it the student would be floating on the immense ocean of literature, with no other means than what chance afforded of attaining the object of his voyage. To pursue the simile, it may be said that the art of navigation is not more indispensable to a mariner than is a certain acquaintance with Bibliography to him who passes any part of his life in intellectual pursuits.

Dr. Johnson has observed, with his usual elegance and propriety, "by the means of Catalogues only can be known what has been written on every part of learning, and the hazard avoided of encountering difficulties which have already been cleared, discussing questions which have already been decided, and digging in mines of literature which former ages have exhausted;" but a bare Catalogue, though the most laborious, is the humblest part of a Bibliographer's duty. Mere industry may enable him to copy titles, names, and dates; but to classify and arrange works into the several divisions and subdivisions, which a student requires-to describe the merits of each work, and the peculiarity of each edition-to point out the true from the spurious edition-and to give such a collation of works which do not either by signatures, pagination, or otherwise, present the means of ascertaining whether it be complete or imperfect-to trace rare works from library to library, in order that those who wish to consult them may know where they are deposited-and to give the different prices at which books have at various times been sold, that an idea may be formed of their value-require a combination of talent, research, and industry, which entitle the labours of a Bibliographer to much more respect than has hitherto been conceded to them.

In thus stating the acquirements necessary for a Bibliographer, the Editor has in view rather to deprecate severity of criticism on whatever defects may be found in this work, than, with unseemly presumption, to exaggerate the merit of its compilation. No one can be insensible to the errors which are incidental to the first edition of a work of this nature; for, as it is well remarked by Monsieur Renouard, whose reputation as a Bibliographer proves that he must be well aware of the difficulties incidental to the pursuit :- -“Si bien préparé soit-on, et quelques

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