A variety of Serials are before us; commencing, closing, or
continuing. We wish them all every success, but they are obvi- ously more fitted for the purchaser than the reviewer : however, they are before us, and demand a line of acknowledgment.
Among the most marked of the first class, is Mr. Commars's first number of his New Library of Entertainment; commencing with Mr. E. RULWER'S revised edition of Pe/ham; which, besides the text, contains a preface explaining the origin of the work, and the rough draft from which the Adventures of a Gentle- man were expanded to their present extent. The whole is to be completed in six parts, issued weekly at a shilling a number. Here is an instance of the march of cheapness! The work originally
valued at 1/.11s. 6d. is now to be had for 6s. in a vastly improved state: and as the fame of a writer may be said to increase in
proportion to the fall in the price of his production, we have at once a standard by which to measure the merit of modern novel- ists. In the case before us, seven years have added 500 per cent, to the reputation of Mr. E. L. RULWER.
Miss MARTINEAU is not only instructive herself, but the cause of instruction in others. Scenes and Characters Illustrating Christian Truth, aims at diffusing a knowledge of morals and religion, as she diffused the principles of political economy. But either the subject is not so well adapted for tales, or the art of the writers is inferior ; for the scientific principles, which Miss MARTINEAU incorporated with the story, are but stuck upon it in the work before us. The tales possess, however, some interest, a good deal of matter, and considerable strength of writing. 'Iwo numbers of this serial have already appeared,—Trial and Self Discipline, and The Sceptic.
Of this class of literature, one publication only falls under our second head ; and that is the fourth volume of Mr. VALPY S elegant edition of the Works of Pope. Besides the Translations,
Imitations, Epistles, and Miscellanies, this edition contains some Fugitive Pieces, of doubtful authenticity, but adding completeness and a curious value to the work.
The Serials which are yet running their course are six. (1.) The Forty-eighth Volume of the Standard Novels contains Mr. TRELAWNEY'S Younger Son: the new Preface has been chiefly drawn from the notice in the Spectator, the propriety of whose praise is vouched for. (2.) The Eighth Volume of Boswell's Johnson ; which work, it appears, is to be protracted to ten volumes, instead of closing as originally advertised. (3.) The Twenty-second Volume of the Sacred Classics, commencing JEREMY TAYLOR'S Life of Christ. The so-called biography, however, is more in the nature of a commentary, from which Lessons of holiness are deduced, than a life of the Saviour, in the general acceptation of the term. (4) The Seventeenth Volume of HuattEs's Continuation of the History of England, is chiefly occupied with the stirring times of the commencement of the Revolutionary War. (3.) The Eighteenth Volume of SCOTT'S Prose Works, still continuing his Periodical Criticism. (6.) The Fifth Volume of Sir EGERTON BRYDGE s' Milton, containing Samson Agonistes, Comus, and Arcades, with an original Essay on MILTON'S versification.
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