De Quincey's Works. Vol. XV. (A. and C. Black.) — The closing
volume of the new edition of De Quincey's works appears to call for
something more than a mere record of its reception, inasmuch as it is entirely made up of materials which were not included in the former edition. It consists of four biographies—of Shakespeare, Pope, Goethe, and Schiller, contributed by De Quincey to the seventh edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," in 1838-9; of two papers on the political parties in England, written in 1835 and 1837, the latter of which has never before been published ; and of a general index te the whole fifteen volumes, compiled by Mr. Henry Benjamin Wheatley. The biographical sketches are, on the whole, rather slight ; and
the political papers are interesting mainly as illustrating De
Quincey's remarkable power of drawing nice distinctions, the ingenuity of which is greater than their practical value. A letter from the author, quoted in the preface, tells us that the paper on Shakes-
peare cost him more labour than anything he ever wrote, and adds that the only books to which he had access while writing it were a copy
of Campbell's Shake3peare, and the first volume of Chalmers' edition.
This latter fact may legitimately excite our wonder ; but it must rather detract from than add to the intrinsic merit of the performance. A
tolerably careful examination of the index has convinced us that it is, on the whole, compiled with judgment, and is good as far as it goes; but it does not go far enough. Few writers are more discursive than De Quincey ; and an index to his works, to be really serviceable to its full extent, should be at least twice as copious as that contributed by Mr. Wheatley to the present edition.
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