By Arnold Bennett.
After dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to John Dryden, I must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered roughly by the eighteenth century. There is, however, no reason why the student in quest of a library should follow the chronological order. Indeed, I should advise him to attack the nineteenth century before the eighteenth, for the reason that, unless his taste happens to be peculiarly “Augustan,” he will obtain a more immediate satisfaction and profit from his acquisitions in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth. There is in eighteenth-century literature a considerable proportion of what I may term “unattractive excellence,” which one must have for the purposes of completeness, but which may await actual perusal until more pressing and more human books have been read. I have particularly in mind the philosophical authors of the century.
| £ | s. | d. | |
| JOHN LOCKE, Philosophical Works: Bohn's | |||
| Edition (2 vols.) | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| SIR ISAAC NEWTON, Principia (sections 1, | |||
| 2, and 3): Macmillans | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| Gilbert Burnet, History of His Own Time: | |||
| Everyman's Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| William Wycherley, Best Plays: Mermaid | |||
| Series | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| WILLIAM CONGREVE, Best Plays: Mermaid | |||
| Series | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Jonathan Swift, Tale of a Tub: Scott | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels: | |||
| Temple Classics | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| DANIEL DEFOE, Robinson Crusoe: World's | |||
| Classics | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| DANIEL DEFOE, Journal of the Plague | |||
| Year: Everyman's Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, | |||
| Essays: Scott Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| William Law, Serious Call: Everyman's | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Lady Mary W. Montagu, Letters: Everyman's | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| George Berkeley, Principles of Human | |||
| Knowledge: New Universal Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| SAMUEL RICHARDSON, Clarissa (abridged): | |||
| Routledge's Edition | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| John Wesley, Journal: Everyman's | |||
| Library (4 vols.) | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| HENRY FIELDING, Tom Jones: Routledge's | |||
| Edition | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| HENRY FIELDING, Amelia: Routledge's | |||
| Edition | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| HENRY FIELDING, Joseph Andrews: | |||
| Routledge's Edition | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| David Hume, Essays: World's Classics | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| LAURENCE STERNE, Tristram Shandy: | |||
| World's Classics | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| LAURENCE STERNE, Sentimental Journey: | |||
| New Universal Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Horace Walpole, Castle of Otranto: King's | |||
| Classics | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker: | |||
| Routledge's Edition | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Tobias Smollett, Travels through France | |||
| and Italy: World's Classics | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| ADAM SMITH, Wealth of Nations: World's | |||
| Classics (2 vols.) | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets: | |||
| World's Classics (2 vols.) | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Samuel Johnson, Rasselas: New Universal | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| JAMES BOSWELL, Life of Johnson: Everyman's | |||
| Library (2 vols.) | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Oliver Goldsmith, Works: Globe Edition | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling: | |||
| Cassell's National Library | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Art: | |||
| Scott Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Edmund Burke, Reflections on the French | |||
| Revolution: Scott Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Present | |||
| Discontents: New Universal Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| EDWARD GIBBON, Decline and Fall of the | |||
| Roman Empire: World's Classics | |||
| (7 vols.) | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Watts | |||
| and Co.'s Edition | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, Plays: | |||
| World's Classics | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Fanny Burney, Evelina: Everyman's | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Gilbert White, Natural History of Selborne: | |||
| Everyman's Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Arthur Young, Travels in France: York | |||
| Library | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Mungo Park, Travels: Everyman's Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the | |||
| Principles of Morals: Clarendon | |||
| Press | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, Essay on the | |||
| Principle of Population: Ward, | |||
| Lock's Edition | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| William Godwin, Caleb Williams: | |||
| Newnes's Edition | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Maria Edgeworth, Helen: Macmillan's | |||
| Illustrated Edition | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| JANE AUSTEN, Novels: Nelson's New | |||
| Century Library (2 vols.) | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| James Morier, Hadji Baba: Macmillan's | |||
| Illustrated Novels | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| ___ | ___ | ___ | |
| £5 | 1 | 0 |
The principal omissions here are Jeremy Collier, whose outcry against the immorality of the stage is his slender title to remembrance; Richard Bentley, whose scholarship principally died with him, and whose chief works are no longer current; and "Junius," who would have been deservedly forgotten long ago had there been a contemporaneous Sherlock Holmes to ferret out his identity.
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved: Temple | |||
| Dramatists | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Matthew Prior, Poems on Several Occasions: | |||
| Cambridge English Classics | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| John Gay, Poems: Muses' Library | |||
| (2 vols.) | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| ALEXANDER POPE, Works: Globe Edition | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Isaac Watts, Hymns: Any hymn-book | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| James Thomson, The Seasons: Muses' | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Charles Wesley, Hymns: Any hymn-book | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| THOMAS GRAY, Samuel Johnson, William | |||
| Collins, Poems: Muses' Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| James Macpherson (Ossian), Poems: | |||
| Canterbury Poets | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| THOMAS CHATTERTON, Poems: Muses' | |||
| Library (2 vols.) | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| WILLIAM COWPER, Poems: Canterbury | |||
| Poets | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| WILLIAM COWPER, Letters: World's | |||
| Classics | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| George Crabbe, Poems: Methuen's Little | |||
| Library | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| WILLIAM BLAKE, Poems: Muses' Library | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| William Lisle Bowles, Hartley Coleridge, | |||
| Poems: Canterbury Poets | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| ROBERT BURNS, Works: Globe Edition | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| ___ | ___ | ___ | |
| £1 | 7 | 0 |
| 39 prose writers in | 60 | volumes, | costing | £5 | 1 | 0 |
| 18 poets | 18 | " | " | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| __ | __ | ___ | ___ | ___ | ||
| 57 | 78 | £6 | 8 | 0 |
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This is taken from Literary Taste.
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