18 MARCH 1905, Page 23

METHUEN ' S STANDARD LIBRI■RY.-We have received from Messrs. Methuen and Co.

the early volumes of the new " Methuen's Standard Library," edited by Sidney Lee. The volumes are excellently printed and generally attractive in appearance, and they are very moderately priced, a single volume in paper covers being 6d. net, in cloth ls., a double volume 1s. and ls. 6d. The specimens before us are The Novels of Jane Austen-Sense and Sensibility; English Works of Francis Bacon- The Essays, and The New Atlantis ; Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I. (double) ; John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress; Works of William Shakespeare, Vol. I.; The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Translated by R. Graves, M.A. We wish success to the series, and hope that it may be the means of bringing many minds into contact and sympathy with the great writers of the past. The age may be poor in original works in literature, but it is certainly rich in reprints.