CURRENT LITERATURE.
Ready Reference : the Universal Cyclopxdia. Compiled by William Ralston Balch. (Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Welsh.)—This is, in its way, a wonderful volume. Running to some eight hundred pages of clear though small type, it professes to contain "every- thing that everybody wants to know," or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, everything that whoever is in a hurry- ` whoever " means, in effect, nine-tenths of mankind—wishes to -make himself certain of at a glance. Mr. Balch very nearly fulfils his promise. His book is notably weak only in its last depart- ment, that which gives the " best books on all subjects." This list is very inadequate even as a selection. The dictionary por- tion of Mr. Balch's book is a happy idea, carefully worked out. It contains thirty-five thousand words, most of which are of rather unusual occurrence, the common words understood by everybody being, as a rule, omitted. The words whose signification is supplied are printed in bold type. After this dictionary, Mr. Balch gives -a " Dictionary of Things Not Generally Known," in which one is reminded of—or, perhaps, from which one may learn—such facts as that " Mind your P's and Q's " means " Mind your plods and queues," and that Mrs. Grundy is first mentioned in Morton's play of Speed the Plough. Among the thousand subjects all dealt with after a fashion which is the model of succinctness, are : " What to Do till the Doctor Comes," " Man and Woman " (considered mainly from the physiological point of view), "Mirthful Games and Parlour Pastimes," " Church and State," " The World's Countries," " History of Parliament as made by its Reporters," and " Food-Supply of the United Kingdom." Mr. Balch even gives a " Dictionary of Law Terms," which is fairly complete, although he might have done well to include in it "Hanging- Gale," since on at least one occasion it appeared as "banging- gate" in what is ordinarily the most accurate of daily newspapers. This book is one of those few works of reference which can be taken up at odd moments, and can be read at once pleasantly and profitably for five minutes at a time.
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