Thus far I have ventured to conduct you to a "hill-side, whence you may discern the right path of a virtuous and noble education; Jaborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospects and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.*" With my best respects to Mr. Grierson, when you see him, April 1, 1823. SELECTED FOR THE MUSEUM. Manuel du Bibliophile, ou Traité de Choix des Livres. Par GABRIEL PIEGNOT. 2 vols. 8vo. DIJON. Bibliotheca Britannica: or a General Index to British and Foreign Literature. By ROBERT WATT. 4to. Edinburgh and London. 4 vols. 1824. Bibliotheca Biblica: a Select List of Books on Sacred Literature, with Notices, Biographical, Critical, and Bibliographical. By WILLIAM ORME. Svo. Edinburgh and London. 1824. BIBLIOGRAPHY, or the knowledge of books, is a branch of science, which has been most extensively studied by the literati of France, Germany, and Italy. Great Britain, however, can boast of many learned bibliographers now living, among whom the Rev. T. F. Dibdin may claim a distinguished place for the variety of information contained in his numerous publications, and for their splendid typography. M. Peignot is one of the most prolific writers on bibliography in France: and his attachment to his favourite pursuit has led him, in some of his multifarious volumes, to exaggerate its valuc, so far as to represent it as the most extensive and even universal of all sciences. Bibliography, as pursued by some, at least, of its ardent admirers, is little more than a mere knowledge of the fringe and drapery of a book; but, if it go not beyond this, it goes no useful length; it is a curiosity at once absurd and irregular. To be useful, bibliography must teach us to read what is valuable, not merely what is rare; to make a love of books instrumental to a love of knowledge; to examine as well as to open volumes, and to apply our knowledge of what has been written or done in other ages, towards the improvement of that in which we live. Such is the true end of bibliography; and its object is more or less answered in the publications of which we are now to give some account to our readers. 1. The first of these is the "Manuel" of M. Peignot, which was originally an essay of three hundred pages, published in 1817, but * Milton's Tractate on Education, addressed to Mr. Hartlib. it is now enlarged into two well printed and well filled octavo volumes, comprising nearly one thousand pages. Passing over the preliminary discourse, which contains a number of observations not remarkable for their profundity, though ingeniously expressed, on the importance of literature, the use and abuse of the press, &c. we come to the first part of his work, which treats on the necessity of making a selection out of the innumerable quantity of volumes extant. The second part comprises a literary, historical, and chronological account of the predilection, which celebrated men in every age have exhibited for peculiar books. Multum legere, non multa, was their motto, as it must be that of every one, who is desirous of acquiring solid information. This, as we incidentally remarked in our last volume, (p. 394,) is one of the more amusing parts of Mr. Peignot's book, though at the same time one of the most prolix. We shall condense it into its principal parts; the chief part even of those are already familiar to the student. The history of Thucydides, who when a youth had shed tears of transport and joy on hearing Herodotus repeat his history of the Persian wars before the Athenians, was so much admired by Demosthenes, that, in order to perfect himself as an orator, he transcribed it eight times, and could almost repeat it by heart. The reverence of Alexander the Great for Homer is known to all scholars. Xenophon was the favourite author of Scipio Africanus, who continually perused his works, which materially contributed to make him a great general: the same admirable moralist and historian constituted the delight of Lucullus. Though Aristotle, Plato, and Theophrastus were greatly admired and studied by Cicero, yet Demosthenes was in his judgment the greatest of all orators in every kind of style: and he gloried in imitating him. The younger Brutus so highly esteemed the history of Polybius, that he not only read it even when engaged in the most important affairs, but on the very day before the battle of Philippi, he was occupied în abridging his history. So enthusiastically was Virgil attached to Homer, that he was surnamed the Homeric. The Emperor Adrian is an instance of the depravation of literary taste, which took place after the Augustan age. He preferred, in eloquence, Cato to Cicero; in poetry, Ennius to Virgil; and in history, Cœlius to Sallust. The Emperor Tacitus so highly valued the works of the historian Tacitus, (from whom he gloried in tracing his descent), that he placed his statue in the public libraries, and commanded that ten new copies of his writings should be made annually, at the expense of the treasury, that they might not perish by the carelessness of readers. Homer and Plato were the favourite authors of Julian: Virgil, of Theodoric I., King of the Visigoths; and Augustine's Treatise on the City of God, of Charlemagne, who not only read it during his dinner, but placed it beneath his pillow when he slept. Our illustrious Alfred, was so charmed with the fables of Æsop, that he translated them into Saxon verse. Theodore Gaza, the grammarian of Thessalonica, (who fled into Italy on the conquest of his country by the Turks), said, as Menage also did long afterwards, that if all the books of the ancients were in the fire, he would draw Plutarch out of the flames, in preference to all the rest. Louis XII. showed his good sense and good taste, by making choice of the commentaries of Cæsar and of Cicero de Officiis. Andrea Navageri, a noble Venetian, and a good Latin poet, was particularly fond of Catullus, whom he imitated in an excellent book of epigrams, which he composed. His enthusiastic attachment to the poems of Catullus led him to conceive such a hatred of Martial's epigrams, that, having instituted in his own house an annual festival in honour of the muses, he never failed on these occasions to sacrifice a copy of Martial to the manes and memory of Catullus. The cardinals Du Prat and Bellia were both passionate admirers of the romance of Rabelais. The former indeed, carried his admiration to such a pitch, that wherever he went, Rabelais was his inseparable companion: and the latter is said to have refused to admit a distinguished scholar to his table, because he had not read the book: for so was the romance at that time called. Nicholas Bourbon, a modern Latin poet, said that he had rather be the author of Buchanan's Paraphrase on the Psalms of David, than be archbishop of Paris; and the celebrated Julius Cæsar Scaliger, that he would rather have composed the second Ode in the fourth book of Horace, (Quem tu Melpomene semel, &c.) than be King of Arragon. Thucydides was the companion of the Emperor Charles V. Melancthon limited his library to four authors, whose names begin with the same letter, viz. Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, and Ptolemy. The celebrated civilian Cujas used to say of the works of Paulus de Castro, a distinguished professor of law in the fifteenth century,-Qui non habet Paulum de Castro, tunicam vendat et emat. Montaigne gave the preference among the moderns, to the Decameron of Boccacio, to Rabelais, and to the Basia of Johannes Secundus, and among the ancients to Virgil, Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, Lucan, Terence, Plutarch (in the French version of Amyot), Seneca, the philosophical writings of Cicero, especially his moral treatises, his epistles to Atticus, and the commentaries of Cæsar. Passerat, professor of eloquence in the college at Cambray, was particularly attached to Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius. He made their poems the subject of his lectures, and published elaborate commentaries on them. The venerable admiral de Coligny, when a young man, and Henry IV. of France, were equally admirers of the Elements of Euclid and of Plutarch's Lives: to the latter work, the king often acknowledged himself indebted for many excellent maxims, both of personal conduct and of government. Statius, Seneca the tragic poet, Ovid, Juvenal, Martial, and above all Horace, were the favourite authors of Malherbe, who was accustomed to call the works of Horace his breviary. Cardinal Richelieu recreated himself with Barclay's Argenis. Quevedo de Villegas, the well known author of the Visions, was so passionately fond of Don Quixote, that, when reading it, he was tempted to burn his own numerous productions. Grotius always carried a copy of Lucan in his pocket, which he kissed several times in the course of the day. Next to the Bible, Homer was the solace of our immortal Milton. Quintus Curtius was the favourite author of Marshal Turenne, and of Charles XII. of Sweden. La Bruyere placed Moses, Homer, Plato, Virgil, and Horace, above all other writers. Racine, while only a youth of 16 or 17, had almost entirely learnt Sophocles and Euripides by heart. Bossuet being asked what work he would wish to have written, replied "The Provincial Letters" of Pascal. Bourdaloue read every year the epistles of Saint Paul, the works of Chrysostom, and of Cicero, from which he drew his masculine and solid eloquence. The learned and upright chancellor D'Aguesseau suffered no day to pass, without perusing some portion of the Scriptures; and from this circumstance M. Piegnot takes occasion to introduce a long disquisition on the sublimity, beauty, and excellence of the sacred writings. Tacitus was the favourite author of Montesquieu; Kempis de Imitatione Christi, of Fontenelle; Cicero and Horace, of the Dauphin, (father of Louis XVI.); the Athaliah of Racine, and the Petit Carême of Massillon, of Voltaire; Plutarch's Lives of Rosseau; Horace, of D'Alembert; Euripides, Sophocles, and Richardson the novelist, of Diderot. Buffon recommended the perusal of the writings of the greatest geniuses, the number of which he limited to five, viz. Bacon, Newton, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and himself! He also highly esteemed Fenelon and Richardson. In early life, Franklin was delighted with Xenophon, from whose philosophic works he seems to have derived his Socratic method. Louis XVI. was so charmed with Fenelon's Directions pour la conscience d'un Roi, that he ordered an impression of them to be printed. Among other literary productions of this unfortunate and amiable king, which Peignot has recorded, we may mention his translation of Walpole's Historic Doubts respecting Richard III., and of Hume's History of Charles I. into French, as well as some of the earlier volumes of Gibbon's Rome. The Empress Catharine II. was attached to Amyot's French version of Plutarch, Amelot de la Houssaie's translation of Tacitus, and the Essays of Montaigne. The opinion of Viscount Chateaubriand closes this part of M. Peignot's work as well as his first volume. "Pascal," he says, "Bossuet, Molière, and La Fontaine, are four incomparable men, whom we shall never see again. If we do not reckon Racine among them, it is because he has a rival in Virgil." On referring to the preceding list, it will be seen that Plutarch's Lives have been most frequently preferred to every other book, except the Scriptures. We are not disposed to go so far as some of his admirers: but we must in justice add, that few productions of antiquity are better fitted to form men either for public or private life. Plutarch, as Rollin long since remarked, does not suffer himself to be dazzled by brilliant actions. The reflections introduced into his writings, accustom his readers to form similar judgments, to teach them wherein true greatness and glory consist. His language, certainly, is neither pure nor elegant: but this defect is compensated by a force and energy, which are admirably adapted to delineate vivid images, and to express noble and sublime emotions. The third part of this treatise comprises a notice of the finest passages in the works of the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern, in the compilation of which M. Peignot has confessedly availed himself of the labours of the principal critics. These are alphabetically arranged, not very consistently in our judgment; and some curious collocations of names are consequently produced. Thus we find Julius Cæsar between Cervantes, and the pathetic Cheminais, whom Bouhours termed the Euripides of the Pulpit; Eschylus and Euripides between the comical Dufresny and the eloquent and pious Fenelon; Ovid between Nicole and Piron; Sallust between Rousseau and Saurin; and Voltaire between Virgil and Xenophon. We must, however, add that M. Peignot appears to have generally succeeded in indicating the best passages of each; and were a Chrestomathia to be published containing the passages of the several classics which he has specified, with the accompaniment of select notes, it would be an admirable help towards forming the taste of academic youth, instead of the mutilated "Elegant Extracts" from Greek and Latin authors, which are commonly used. To these notices succeeds a bibliographical account, systematically arranged, of the best editions of the classics of every age, sacred and profane, together with the best French translations of ancient and foreign works. This catalogue raisonné fills 286 pages, and is replete with information concisely expressed. M. Peignot's work is a perfect contrast to Mr. Dibdin's lively "Library Companion,” of which we defer giving an account to our readers, till his second and corrected edition shall make its appearance. M. Peignot in the last portion of his work gives a variety of useful instructions for the situation of a library, and the best mode of arranging and preserving the books. Previously to the collecting of books, some attention should obviously be given to a commodious place for their reception. Vitruvius recommends an eastern aspect, because the study requires the morning light, and because this exposure is most favourable to their preservation. A southern aspect favours the hatching of insects, while a western one renders a library damp. Savot is of opinion that a northern aspect is preferable, because the air from the north is purer. The result of both these opinions is, that an A better reason may be found in the greater clearness of the light; its greater equality as being free from the direct sun-beam, and in the result its greater capability of adaptation to the generally delicate eye of the student, by jalousies, by green curtains, &c. The painter's study always faces the the North. |