A lover of literature, and aspiring to promote its extension
and improvement, I sometimes form projects for the adoption of
others--sensible, be it also said, of the extent of my own engagements
with certain learned societies.
One of these projects has been a tabular view of the literary
biography of the British Islands. In the midst of my reflections on
the plans of Blair, Priestly, Playfair, Oberlin, Tytler, Jarry de
Mancy, &c. I received a specimen of a _Bibliographie biographique_, by
Edouard-Marie Oettinger, now in the press at Leipzic.
As books multiply, the inexpediency of attempting general bibliography
becomes more {43} and more apparent. Meritorious as are the works of
Brunet and Ebert, and useful as they may be to _collectors_, they
are inadequate to the wants of _men of letters_. Henceforth, the
bibliographer who aims at completeness and accuracy must restrict
himself to one class of books.
M. Oettinger appears to have acted on this principle, and has been
happy in the choice of his subject--
"The proper study of mankind is man."
The work is comprehensive in its object, judicious in its plan,
accurate in its details, as far as the specimen proceeds, and an
unquestionable desideratum in literature.
Ainsi, vive M. Edouard-Marie Oettinger! Vive la _Bibliographie
biographique_!