AN ENGLISH LIBRARY: PERIOD II
After dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to John
Dryden, I must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered
roughly by the eighteenth century. There is, however, no reason why
the student in quest of a library should follow the chronological
order. Indeed, I should advise him to attack the nineteenth century
before the eighteenth, for the reason that, unless his taste
happens to be peculiarly "Augustan," he will obtain a more immediate
satisfaction and profit from his acquisitions in the nineteenth
century than in the eighteenth. There is in eighteenth-century
literature a considerable proportion of what I may term "unattractive
excellence," which one must have for the purposes of completeness,
but which may await actual perusal until more pressing and more human
books have been read. I have particularly in mind the philosophical
authors of the century.
PROSE WRITERS. £ s. d.
JOHN LOCKE, _Philosophical Works_: Bohn's
Edition (2 vols.) 0 7 0
SIR ISAAC NEWTON, _Principia_ (sections 1,
2, and 3): Macmillans 0 12 0
Gilbert Burnet, _History of His Own Time_:
Everyman's Library 0 1 0
William Wycherley, _Best Plays_: Mermaid
Series 0 2 6
WILLIAM CONGREVE, _Best Plays_: Mermaid
Series 0 2 6
Jonathan Swift, _Tale of a Tub_: Scott
Library 0 1 0
Jonathan Swift, _Gulliver's Travels_:
Temple Classics 0 1 6
DANIEL DEFOE, _Robinson Crusoe_: World's
Classics 0 1 0
DANIEL DEFOE, _Journal of the Plague
Year_: Everyman's Library 0 1 0
Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele,
_Essays_: Scott Library 0 1 0
William Law, _Serious Call_: Everyman's
Library 0 1 0
Lady Mary W. Montagu, _Letters_: Everyman's
Library 0 1 0
George Berkeley, _Principles of Human
Knowledge_: New Universal Library 0 1 0
SAMUEL RICHARDSON, _Clarissa_ (abridged):
Routledge's Edition 0 2 0
John Wesley, _Journal_: Everyman's
Library (4 vols.) 0 4 0
HENRY FIELDING, _Tom Jones_: Routledge's
Edition 0 2 0
HENRY FIELDING, _Amelia_: Routledge's
Edition 0 2 0
HENRY FIELDING, _Joseph Andrews_:
Routledge's Edition 0 2 0
David Hume, _Essays_: World's Classics 0 1 0
LAURENCE STERNE, _Tristram Shandy_:
World's Classics 0 1 0
LAURENCE STERNE, _Sentimental Journey_:
New Universal Library 0 1 0
Horace Walpole, _Castle of Otranto_: King's
Classics 0 1 6
Tobias Smollett, _Humphrey Clinker_:
Routledge's Edition 0 2 0
Tobias Smollett, _Travels through France
and Italy_: World's Classics 0 1 0
ADAM SMITH, _Wealth of Nations_: World's
Classics (2 vols.) 0 2 0
Samuel Johnson, _Lives of the Poets_:
World's Classics (2 vols.) 0 2 0
Samuel Johnson, _Rasselas_: New Universal
Library 0 1 0
JAMES BOSWELL, _Life of Johnson_: Everyman's
Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0
Oliver Goldsmith, _Works_: Globe Edition 0 3 6
Henry Mackenzie, _The Man of Feeling_:
Cassell's National Library 0 0 6
Sir Joshua Reynolds, _Discourses on Art_:
Scott Library 0 1 0
Edmund Burke, _Reflections on the French
Revolution_: Scott Library 0 1 0
Edmund Burke, _Thoughts on the Present
Discontents_: New Universal Library 0 1 0
EDWARD GIBBON, _Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire_: World's Classics
(7 vols.) 0 7 0
Thomas Paine, _Rights of Man_: Watts
and Co.'s Edition 0 1 0
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, _Plays_:
World's Classics 0 1 0
Fanny Burney, _Evelina_: Everyman's
Library 0 1 0
Gilbert White, _Natural History of Selborne_:
Everyman's Library 0 1 0
Arthur Young, _Travels in France_: York
Library 0 2 0
Mungo Park, _Travels_: Everyman's Library 0 1 0
Jeremy Bentham, _Introduction to the
Principles of Morals_: Clarendon
Press 0 6 6
THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, _Essay on the
Principle of Population_: Ward,
Lock's Edition 0 3 0
William Godwin, _Caleb Williams_:
Newnes's Edition 0 1 0
Maria Edgeworth, _Helen_: Macmillan's
Illustrated Edition 0 2 6
JANE AUSTEN, _Novels_: Nelson's New
Century Library (2 vols.) 0 4 0
James Morier, _Hadji Baba_: Macmillan's
Illustrated Novels 0 2 6
__________
£5 1 0
The principal omissions here are Jeremy Collier, whose outcry against
the immorality of the stage is his slender title to remembrance;
Richard Bentley, whose scholarship principally died with him, and
whose chief works are no longer current; and "Junius," who would have
been deservedly forgotten long ago had there been a contemporaneous
Sherlock Holmes to ferret out his identity.
POETS. £ s. d.
Thomas Otway, _Venice Preserved_: Temple
Dramatists 0 1 0
Matthew Prior, _Poems on Several Occasions_:
Cambridge English Classics 0 4 6
John Gay, _Poems_: Muses' Library
(2 vols.) 0 2 0
ALEXANDER POPE, _Works_: Globe Edition 0 3 0
Isaac Watts, _Hymns_: Any hymn-book 0 1 0
James Thomson, _The Seasons_: Muses'
Library 0 1 0
Charles Wesley, _Hymns_: Any hymn-book 0 1 0
THOMAS GRAY, Samuel Johnson, William
Collins, _Poems_: Muses' Library 0 1 0
James Macpherson (Ossian), _Poems_:
Canterbury Poets 0 1 0
THOMAS CHATTERTON, _Poems_: Muses'
Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0
WILLIAM COWPER, _Poems_: Canterbury
Poets 0 1 0
WILLIAM COWPER, _Letters_: World's
Classics 0 1 0
George Crabbe, _Poems_: Methuen's Little
Library 0 1 6
WILLIAM BLAKE, _Poems_: Muses' Library 0 1 0
William Lisle Bowles, Hartley Coleridge,
_Poems_: Canterbury Poets 0 1 0
ROBERT BURNS, _Works_: Globe Edition 0 3 6
__________
£1 7 0
SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD.
39 prose writers in 60 volumes, costing £5 1 0
18 poets " 18 " " 1 7 0
__ __ __________
57 78 £6 8 0