Everyman's Library.—It is with much pleasure that we draw attention
to the publication of fifty more volumes in the " Everyman's Library " (J. M. Dent and Sons, Is. net per vol.) The selection of works continues to be as excellent as before, the print as clear, the binding as strong, and, most important of all, the price as small. There is no exaggera- tion in the statement that to issue the classics under such conditions is to perform a public service of the highest value. And it becomes accordingly the more important to point out any defects that may seem in the least likely to discredit the under- taking. One such defect is to be found in Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," three volumes of which have just appeared. In the course of Mr. Smeaton's introduction (p. xviii.) there occurs a statement that "Gibbon's notes are given in their entirety." A comparison with any previous edition will show that this is in fact fax from being the case. We cannot here raise the general question of the desirability of bowdlerising the classics, nor the more particular questions whether Gibbon's notes deserve this fate more than his text, or whether Mr. Smeaton has performed his task with discretion. But we may suggest that in future editions the sentence which we have quoted should be omitted from the introduction, and that a statement that the notes have been abridged should appear on the title-page. The discovery on the part of the public that (owing to what is doubtless an unintentional error) it has been buying an incomplete Gibbon is likely, we fear, to tend towards shaking its confidence in an excellent institution. Among the new volumes we may especially mention such little- known works as "The High History of the Holy Graal " and John Woolman's "Journal," besides a useful "Biographical Dictionary of English Literature."
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