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 |