THE

BRITISH LIBRARY,

COMPRISING

THE CLASSIC AUTHORS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Price of each Volume, elegantly printed in Foolscap 8vo.

THREE SHILLINGS.

THE present age is distinguished for literary enterprise, directed to the laudable object of bringing knowledge within the reach of all classes of the community. But a capital error in principle has been suffered to pervade endeavours otherwise so praiseworthy: novelty of information, rather than excellence, has been studied. While new books have been multiplied, the time-honoured and tried authors of our national literature have fallen into neglect. By the progress of discovery, even the best works may be superseded; but the departments of learning thus rapidly advancing are few, while, in all the other provinces of mind, the Standard Classics, which have already borne the test of time, are certainly safer guides than volumes hurriedly prepared to meet the demands of a periodical issue. Hence compilations, often most crudely digested, and generally by inferior, or unknow and consequely irresponsible, writers, have with little advantage 1pon the p. is hours of the young, and upon the limited a exelraion of the un' quel and rer our

f

of intelligence.

Mankind will evidely be improved by promoting th with the most perfect models, not by encouraging converse with while a good book, already the property of the public, can certainly be republished at less expense than a bad one, where the writing is to be purchased. These positions are self-evident; and we appeal to the personal experience of every man who has attended with any degree of care to the culture of his own mind, for proof of the fact, that his substantial, and really valuable, knowledge — the knowledge on which subsequent acquirement must be based, and by which the worth of all future attainment is appreciated -has been derived from the great classics of the language. It ought also to be observed, that many new publications, which of late years have come forth under professions of cheapness, though probably sold at a barely remunerating price to the proprietors, have been far from cheap to the public. A volume of Johnson or Hume, of Locke or Milton, may be elegantly brought out for less money than an equal quantity of scribbling, whose sole recomiendation is novelty.

It is manifest, then, that the only effective mode by which useful knowledge can be cheaply, and therefore generally, diffused, is to open up easy access to the established Classics of British Literature. The intellectual and moral improvement of all ranks is thus secured upon models whose excellence is sanctioned by learning and taste, whose reputation is fixed on the sure ground of intrinsic worth, and whose utility has been proved by the experience of ages. Apart from these weighty considerations-the most important, however, which can engage the attention of any people-a correct and uniform, not to speak of an accessible, edition of the national writers is yet wanting in the literature of our country. This deficiency is the more marked when our supineness is contrasted with the diligence

of the French, who are constantly sending forth popular impressions of their classics. Attempts have, indeed, been made to supply this omission, in particular departments; and the more frivolous works in the language have been abundantly reprinted. Books of amusement are, undoubtedly, not entirely to be overlooked; but they ought not to supersede a manlier and more wholesome literature. It would seem, then, hardly to admit of doubt, that an undertaking of this nature, embracing MODERATE PRICE, CAREFUL COLLATION, BEAUTIFUL TYPOGRAPHY, and CONVENIENT SHAPE, must obtain extensive patronage. Great advantage would indeed result from republication of the classics, under any form; but a monthly issue, at a small cost, presents the most extensive and obvious usefulness. Those who regard money less than time, will thus be led insensibly to renew profitable study, and to make up, at leisure moments, the deficiències of early education; the young will commence their reading from the first, with the best examples of scholarship; while the humble and the poor, without encroaching on their means or avocations, may become intimately conversant with the genuine sources of moral worth and intellectual eminence.

Resting their hopes of success upon these, they trust, legitmate grounds, the Proprietors of the BRITISH LIBRARY propose to publish the Standard British Authors, at a price which shall place the most valuable literature in the world within easy reach of the humblest reader, and in a style which may become the cabinets of the most affluent.

In farther explanation of their plan, the Proprietors refer to the following particulars :

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RITISH 'itions

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I. The works of the principal authors of Great Britain will be published in monthly volumes, foolscap 8vo. each containing from 320 to 400 pages, and occasionally illustrated with plates and woodcuts, for the sum of THREE SHILLINGS, or elegantly boarded d-titled, THREE-SHILLINGS and SI PENCR II. A leading object with the Proprietors, and one of th. gre. tance to the Public, will be to free the works comprised in th LIBRARY, from the numerous errors which abound in even the best of our most popular writers, to an extent of which the reader, whe rapidly over their pages, has often no conception. All such inaccu cies will be corrected by a careful collation of the most approved edit. ns; various readings will occasionally be introduced, when differences of moment occur; and, in cases where the lapse of time may have produced obscurity, or the progress of discovery extended or improved our knowledge, notes and illustrations will be added, -the text being always preserved PURE AND WITHOUT ABRIDGMENT. All the more important works will be edited by writers who have already obtained the public confidence.

III. The whole will constitute a serious of works, which may be connected and arranged by indices, afterwards to be given. The undertaking offers also this peculiar advantage, that the writings of each author will be perfect in themselves, and may be purchased separately. Subscribers may

thus either form a complete body of English literature, or select th works which are especially adapted to their taste and pursuits, or the dition of their libraries. 1

IV. The works of each author will be accompanied with a Biographical Memoir, either selected, or written expessly for the BRITISH LIBRARY.

V. In the compass of a Prospectus it would be impossible to explain in detail the order and contents of a publication which is intended to embrace all our great classic writers in Divinity, History, Philosophy, Polite Literature, and Fiction. But that subscribers may previously be assured as to the value of the forthcoming works, lists of those in preparation will be appended to each volume.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE Proprietors of the BRITISH LIBRARY, in fering the present work, the first of their series, the attention of the Public, confidently refer to as an earnest of the manner in which they are pared to redeem the pledge given in their spectus. They there proposed to republish the 'ard works of the most eminent English authors, ully revised, in an elegant form, and at a more oderate price than is demanded even for editions whose sole recommendation is cheapness. How far these advantages have been secured in the present edition of White's popular work, The Natural History of Selborne, the Public have an opportunity of judging for themselves; and the Proprietors confidently challenge a comparison between this and the best of former editions, satisfied that while the most obvious difference between them is the important one of price, in the number of interesting editorial notes, forming upwards of a third of the hole volume, and in every thing which makes an edition intrinsically valuable, the present yields to

none.

It is right to mention, however, that although the present work is embellished with twenty-three

beautifully executed woodcuts, this does not necessarily form any part of the plan with regard to the other volumes of the BRITISH LIBRARY. A head of the author will accompany his works, and where illustrations are called for by the nature of the subject, these will be liberally given. But the Proprietors consider that the admission of fancy sketches would be incompatible with securing les the publication other advantages which have bene deemed of greater importance.

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The Proprietors beg farther to remark, dard although they ground their hopes of liberal envwhich ragement on the unparalleled CHEAPNESS of lowing edition of the British classics, they also engaged in make it the most CORRECT and ELEGANT which h

ever appeared; and, where the interest of the Public is so obviously consulted, they think they have a fair right to calculate upon such an extensive sale as can alone remunerate them for the great labour and expense which attend their undertaking.