Some nineteenth-century books have long been precious. Early issues of
Shelley's writings at the moment lead, with Tennyson's juvenile poems not far behind. But first editions of the great Victorians are becoming scarcer and dearer as the years go by. It is interesting to find in one of Mr. Francis Edwards's scholarly catalogues, just issued, a first edition of the book that, perhaps, made a deeper impression on the Victorian Era than any other—namely, Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). Twelve hundred and fifty copies were printed and sold on the day of publication, and the world has never ceased talking about the book from that day to this, even in Tennessee. Mr. Edwards prices his copy at £5—no extravagant sum for a work that has made history. Books on the occult seem to be more than ever attractive to a wide circle of amatewn. None but the adept has ever heard of Godfrey Higgins's Anaca- lypsis ; an Attempt to draw aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis (1836), but he will doubtless pay £30 for it. The standard publications in Irish Gaelic and books on the North American Indians are also rare and costly.
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