CHEAP PUBLICATIONS—THE CABINET CYCLOPXDIA.

LITERARY SPECTATOR.

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.* SOME WO thousand years ago and upwards, a sage (a critic, no doubt) declared a great book to be a great evil ; yet, strange to tell, up almost to this present time, goodly quartos, filled not with grave dissertation or learned controversy, but with the cream, the froth of literature— light travels and lighter rhymes—have continued to cumber our shelves and tables. There is an aggravation in our case, which the sage alluded to did not feel or has failed to enumerate,—we mean Ole...ex- pense of. the bie. books of modern times. The cost has always beeif commensurate to flu3-ailkilless ; -and-When ive have had little or cheap books, it has only been when they were written by very little men. All this is now changed. Booksellers and bookmakers have learned at length to look to the million rather than the thousand for encou- ragement—to abridge their giant proportions and abate their prices. Genitis no longer disdains to shine in a "twelves." Pamphlets are indited by men who formerly would have stuck for a thin quarto at least ; and even the humble task of compilation is not deemed too mean for the sharpest wits and most practised pens. For this revolution in the form of our literature, we are chiefly indebted to a man who will never be named by authors or readers without respect—the late Mr. CONSTABLE of Edinburgh. After having established the most sue-

‘cessful periodical ever published in Great Britain, and having sent orth the most splendid series of poetry and romance that any age had witnessed, he finished his career by projecting a course of cheap and

popular literature, which, had he lived and prospered in the world, ould have attracted to its production the highest intellects, and which, although not followed up with quite so much spirit as he displayed, is still a very respectable and interesting work. The example shown by Mr. CONSTABLE was followed by the " Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ;" whose publications, by the extraordinary demand which their objects and method have excited, bid fair in a few years, notwithstanding their extreme cheapness, to form a source of per manent revenue for carrying into effect the further plans of the Societyi le announcement of the Society's intentions was no sooner made, than Mr. MURRAY issued the prospectus of a work of a somewhat similar character. Mr. MURRAY'S publication is highly embellished, and does extreme credit to his liberality and taste. The effect of Mr. MURRAY'S undertaking was a reaction, as our Continental neighbours

term it, which led to the publication, by the Society, of a series of a rather more ambitious character than their first, under the title of the " Library of Entertaining Knowledge ;" and it also has been perfectly successful.

Emboldened by the success of the Society, and of the enterprising publisher of Albemarle Street, Messrs. LONGMAN have projected another Family Library, under the imposing name of a " Cabinet Cyclopaidia ;" and judging from the phalanx of literary coadjutors which Dr. LaanNaa, the editor, has contrived to draw around him, it bids fair to be a most worthy rival of its elder brother. The volume that has been published is very neatly and cheaply got up ; and it bears on its title-page the attractive name of Sir WALTER SCOTT. To his task of tracing the History of Scotland, Sir WALTER brings so in- timate a knowledge of all the striking facts derived from his former studies, that had his powers :been less transcendent than they are, he could hardly have failed to render his present labours interesting. We are not sure, however, that the narrow limits within which the nature of the publication has confined him, have not damped a good deal of the spirit which he would have infused into a more extended performance. It is no imputation on the highest genius lo say that it cannot impart to a brief and naked enumeration of facts the charms of a full and finished narrative. So far as the history of the learned and indefatigable TYTLER comes down (the second volume terminates with DAVID II., and the third has not yet reached us), Sir WALTER appears to have followed it pretty closely ; and he could not have chosen a sounder guide. Some marks of inaccuracy, and some of oblivious- ness, will not fail to strike the studious reader of the abridgment. These, no doubt, have arisen from mere haste in writing. They are only verbal errors-7naculee that do not affect the substance of the work, which is valuable not only on its own account, but as the intro- duction to an important series. We hope the volumes that follow will not fall short of the excellence of their harbinger.

The " Cabinet Cyclopaidia" is to be published in monthly volumes, and the price of each—ix shillings—puts it within the reach of a very numerous class of readers. The plan is extensive ; embracing, indeed, all the important subjects of an ordinary encyclopedia ; and, calcu- lating as the Editor does on a hundred volumes, the price of the whole would equal that of the more ponderous works so denominated. Bat it is peculiar to Dr. :IRONER'S work, that each portion of it is com- plete ; and consequently every reader may consult his taste as well as his purse on the amount of his purchases. The plan ot publication admits also of new and improved editions of particular parts, without injuring the integrity of the rest. Thus, were a future DAVY to arise and new-model the science of chemistry by his discoveries, subsequent to the publication of Messrs. LoNGmAN's treatise, a second treatise might be compiled, and for six shillings the holders of the others would receive all the advantage of a new edition of the whole.

One of our contemporaries has mentioned that the " Cabinet Cycle- pxdia" is twenty-five per cent, cheaper than the cheapest monthly pub- lications; meaning, we presume, the "Library of Entertaining Know- ledge," and the " Family Library." As in any comparison of this * Cabinet Cycloptecila, Vol. I. History of Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott. Longman, Bees, Orme, Brown, and (Inca. London, Mu. kind the first requisite is accuracy, we shall give a correct statement of the four principal works above alluded to :-

1. The "Useful Knowledge" books contain on an average 64 letters to a line, and 62 lines to a page ; the price of 32 pages, stitched, being Gd.

2. The "Cabinet Cyclopmdia contains 44 letters to a line, and 39 lines to a page; price of 364 pages, bound in linen, 6s. 3. The "Family Library" contains 42 letters to a line, and 33 lines to a page; price of 332 pages, bound in linen, 5s.

4. The "Library of Entertaining Knowledge" contains 42 letters to a line, and 39 lines to a page ; price' of 212 pages, stitched, 2s.

From these data it will appear, that, allowing 6d. each for the bind- ing of 2 and 3 (the embellishments add greatly to the cost, but we have no means of estimating how much) the quantity of type matter furnished to the reader, calculated in pages of the smallest of the four

publications, namely Mr. MURRAY'S,is nearly as follows :— Pages. For as., the reader of the Useful Knowledge books receives about . . . 887

Library of Entertaining Knowledge, (embel-

lished) . . . . . . ...... 566

Cabinet Cyelopmdia (embellished) . . . . 413 Family Library (embellished most profusely) . 370