part of these there is not the least fragment remaining; and of others, the pieces which go under their names are generally held by the learned to be supposititious. Hardouin goes farther, charging all the ancient books, both Greek and Latin, except Cicero, Pliny, Virgil's Georgics, Horace's Satires and Epistles, Herodotus, and Homer, to be spurious, and forged in the 13th century by a club of persons, under the direction of one Severus Archontius. Among the Greeks it is to be observed, the oldest books were in verse, which was prior to prose. Herodotus's History is the oldest book extant of the prosaic kind.

To books we are indebted, as one of the chief instruments of acquiring knowledge; they are the repositories of the law, and vehicles of learning of every kind; our religion itself is founded in books, and without them, says Bartholin, "God is silent, Justice dormant, Physic at a stand, Philosophy lame, Letters dumb, and all things involved in Cimmerian darkness."

The eulogia which have been bestowed upon books are infinite; they are represented as the refuge of truth, which is banished out of conversation; as standing counsellors or preachers, always at hand, and always disinterested; having this advantage over all instructions, that they are ready to repeat their lesson as often as we please. Books supply the want of masters, and even, in some measure, the want of genius and invention, and can raise the dullest persons who have memory above the level of the greatest geniuses, if destitute of their help. Perhaps their highest glory is the affection borne them by the greatest men of all ages. Cato, the elder Pliny, the Emperor Julian, and others, are on record for their great devotion to books; the last has perpetuated his passion by some Greek Epigrams in their praise.

THE ALPHABET.

Alphabet is the name given to the series of letters used in different countries at different times. The term is borrowed from the Greek language, in which Alpha, Beta, are the first two letters; or, if we go a step farther back, we should derive the words from the Hebrew, which gives to the corresponding letters the names Aleph, Beth. Thus, the formation of the word is precisely analogous to that of our familiar expression, the A, B, C.

DEDICATIONS TO BOOKS.

Dedications to Books were first introduced in the time of Mæcenas, A.D. 17; practised for the purpose of obtaining money in 1600.*

* A very curious chapter on dedications is to be found in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, p. 122.

ON THE ORIGIN OF PAMPHLETS AND TRACTS,

How many subjects owe their birth to a Pamphlet, which, but for the temptation it affords to the expression of temporary feelings, and trivial discussion (to which local or personal prejudices may have given importance,) would have died a natural death, or have been smothered in the attempt to perpetuate them, under the more repulsive garb of even the most tiny volume? Pamphlets are like essences, combining in a narrow compass all the pungency of the subject of which they treat; where the declamation and violence of the writer are admired while sparingly used, but would be tedious, if not disagreeable, if spread over a wider field. They may be called a species of missile weapons, easily discharged against an adversary; not the less dangerous because they are light, and generally bearing a portion of that fire and spirit to which they owed their existence. Every controversy is preceded by them; like the skirmishers of modern warfare, they are the irregular auxiliaries of literature, which, though not formally enlisted in its service, may, like wandering guerillas, yet do fearful execution. "From pamphlets," says the Icon Libellorum, "may be learned the genius of the age, the debates of the learned, the follies of the ignorant, the views of government, the oversights of the statesman. They furnish beaux with their airs, coquets with their charms; pamphlets are as modish ornaments to a gentleman's toilet, or to gentlemen's pockets; they are chat to the talkative, stories for nurses, toys for children, fans for misses, poverty to their authors, gain to the lucky, fatal to the unlucky.'

There have been many conjectures respecting the origin of the word Pamphlet; but of all the words that have been suggested, those which express a small book consisting of a few leaves of paper secured together and not bound, are probably the most plausibly ingenious, as well as the nearest to the sense and sound of the word itself. For example:-Par un filet, held by a thread (Dr. Johnson;) Palme feuillet, a leaf to be held in the hand (Dr. Pegge;) Papelon, Spanish, from papel; papaleta, signifying both a bill and a pamphlet (Dr. Webster.), It occurs in a Latinised form so early as to be familiarly mentioned in a work entitled Philobiblon; or a treatise concerning the love of Books, written in the fourteenth century by Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham. "If, indeed," says the author of that curious work, "we formerly desired to possess vessels of gold and silver, or stately horses, or to collect together no small sums of money; we now revere books and not pounds, and volumes more than florins, and we prefer little panflets before noble palfreys."

Most books were originally published in the pamphlet form, The Scriptures were supposed to have been written in this manner at first, in distinct sheets, or rolls, as they were affixed by the command of Heaven to the doors of the Temple, or Tabernacle.

The same may probably be asserted of the mode of divulging the warnings of the minor prophets, from the different occasions which were the subjects of their predictions, and the smallness of their contents. The Heathen writings were generally published the same way, and for that reason were called Centores, and were frequently recited separately. Amongst all fabulous writers the Jewish Rabbins occupy the first place; and the pamphlets, or small treatises, preserving their traditions, collected in their Talmud, and originally published at Venice, amounted to no less than fourteen volumes in folio. Next to them in the rank of fiction, and of magnitude, may be classed the "Legends of the Saints," published by the Jesuits in 1673, and amounting, in the beginning of the last century, to fifty folio volumes, all of which were originally of pamphlet sizes.

Political pamphlets were little known in England till the reign of Philip and Mary, Caxton having, in the reign of Henry VI. introduced the "Mysterie of Prynting." In 1649, it was ordained, "That the author of every seditious pamphlet, or libel, shall be fined Ten Pounds, or suffer forty days' imprisonment. The printer Five Pounds, and his printing-press broken," as being the head and front of his offending. "No printing-presses to be allowed except in London, or the two Universities; no books to be landed in any other port than London; and to be viewed by the Master and Warden of the Company of Stationers!"-and such was the origin of the incalculably prolific case of Pamphlets.

The terms Tract and Pamphlet, though differing considerably as to age, have always possessed nearly the same signification, namely, that of a short composition. The term Tract is even still conventionally understood to imply a work somewhat larger and on a more serious subject than the Pamphlet; since it was frequently connected with divinity or religious controversy, in which the meaning of the original word is decidedly to be traced. The Latin Tractatus, whence it is derived, is a treatise on any subject drawn out and methodised. Hence, says Hoffman, the discussions and discourses delivered by the ancient philosophers, sophists, and rhetoricians, juri-consults, and others of similar classes, were called by the word tractare; and hence also the Christian Fathers are every where designated Tractatores, as being those who explained the word of God by speech or writing. Sermons were thus entitled Tractatus with singular propriety. Hence, too, in modern times, we have Tracts for the Times, or short theological treatises, and the writers of them curiously enough nicknamed Tractarians or Tractatores.

CIRCULATING LIBRARIES.

These valuable repositories of literature are not of modern invention. The first collections consisted of religious works alone, and were lent out gratuitously.

Pamphilus was a Presbyter of Cæsarea, and lived A.D. 294. In this distinguished person were united the philosopher and the Christian. Born of a very eminent family, and large fortune, he might have aspired to the highest honours of this world; but, on the contrary, he withdrew himself from those flattering prospects, and spent his whole life in acts of the most disinterested benevolence.

His unfeigned regard and veneration for the Scriptures were as remarkable as his unwearied application in whatever he undertook. Being a great encourager of learning and piety, he not only lent books to read (especially copies of the Scriptures,) but when he found persons well disposed, made them presents of his manuscripts, some of which were transcribed with the greatest accuracy by his own hand. He founded a library at Cæsarea, which, according to Isidore of Seville, contained 30,000 volumes. This collection seems to have been formed merely for the good and use of the church. Another author also authenticates the existence of this library; and St. Jerome particularly mentions his collecting books for the purpose of lending them to read; and Dr. A. Clarke remarks, "this is, if I mistake not, the first notice we have of a circulating library." The benefits to be derived from a good circulating library are too numerous, as well as obvious, to need any comment.

ORIGIN OF POETRY IN GENERAL.

History informs us Poetry began with shepherds, whose god was Pan; having from their many leisure and abstracted hours (while tending their flocks) a fit opportunity for such a pursuit. Hence, they first composed couplets, next verses, and these they perfected themselves in, and sung, while following their daily occupations. Thence came the Bacchanalian rites, and their sacrifice to their gods of a He Goat, which took their rise, we are told, from Bacchus, who one day, whilst entering his vineyard, discovered an animal of that species in the act of destroying a favourite vine, which in his rage he instantly killed. In these ceremonies, the hinds of that day smeared their faces with the lees of wine, and acted and sung various verses expressly composed for the occasion.

These were the first actors and song-smiths, and their successors have done honour and credit to the invention.

66

Eschylus and Thespis taught the age

What good, what profit, did commend the stage."

MILTON'S PARADISE LOST.

John Milton, son of John and Sarah Milton, was born December 9th, 1608, in Bread Street, London. He was educated at Saint Paul's School, under Alexander Gill. He entered at Christ's

College, Cambridge, in 1624. Milton possessed a fine figure, and, when a young man, was extremely handsome. In one of his wanderings when in Italy, being of a very pensive cast, he sat himself down under a tree, and commenced reading, but soon fell asleep. During his slumber two females, who were observed at a distance by two of his companions, stopped on coming near to him; and one of them wrote on a slip of paper the following lines, which she laid on his breast, and with her companion immediately disappeared :

"Occhi, Stelle mortali,
Ministri de miei mali,
Se chiusi m'uccedite,
Apperti che farete?"

which may be translated-" Beautiful eyes, mortal stars, authors of my misfortunes! if you wound me being closed, what would ye do if open?" It is said that Milton was so sensitive on the subject, that he roamed over half of Europe in search of the fair charmer, but in vain; and which induced him to write that sublime poem, and from the circumstance that had occurred to him, entitled it "Paradise Lost." It has been proved by Dr. Rimbault, in a recent number of Notes and Queries, that this piece of Romance first appeared in a newspaper, the General Evening Post, of 1789. The scene, however, is there laid in England. The story is given by the Rev. H. J. Todd, in Some Account of the Life and Writings of John Milton, 1826, p. 30, who adds the following note:-" This narrative is not singular: an exact and older counterpart may be found, as the late J. C. Walker pointed out to me, in the Preface to Poésies de Marguerite Eleanore Clotilde depuis Madame de Surville, Poète François du XV. Siecle: Paris, 1803. The Anecdote has been elegantly versified in the original Sonnets, &c., of Anna Seward." Milton died November the 8th, 1674, and was buried in the Chancel of St. Giles' Church, Cripplegate. He was Latin Secretary to Cromwell.

THE FIRST BOOK.

According to chronologists, the First Book is supposed to have been written in Job's time. Thirty thousand books were burnt by order of Leo, in 761. A very large estate was given for one book on Cosmography, by king Alfred.* Books were sold from £10 to £30 each in 1400. The first printed book was the vulgate edition of the Bible, in 1462; the second was Cicero de Officiis, 1466; Cornelius Nepos, published at Moscow, was the first classical book printed in Russia, April 29, 1762. In the

*This statement, which is founded on Robertson, is not to be depended on. See, on the subject of the price of Books, Dr. Maitland's "Dark Ages," chap. v.