There is no better form of book, providing always the print be clear and
distinct, than the volume which is adapted practically in price and size
to the pocket. One man's pocket is more capacious than another's, as one
man's purse is longer than another's, and the latter can purchase a
volume more expensively got up than the small, useful, charming
travelling companions that _Mr. Punch_ has at this moment actually in
view while others are in his mind's eye, Horatio. _The Handy-Volume
Shakspeare_ (BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO.), which in every way is the model of
a pocket-volume, the model _par excellence_, is a member of a family all
in one case, a perfect Christmas present. But if one volume is lost, the
set is spoilt, and the missing book cannot, in the ordinary course of
bookselling nature, be replaced. Consequently only a very careful and
methodical person can venture upon travelling about with one of these
volumes as his pocket-companion. A little Shakespeare is a dangerous
thing. And this is why the small books belonging to _Cassell's National
Library,_ price threepence apiece, ought to find favour in the eyes of
those who can read in a cab, in a coach, in a train, or even walking. As
to a man running and reading the thing's almost impossible, and whoever
saw a man on horseback reading a book, except in an old print of _Doctor
Syntax_? As the snail carries his shell about with him, so every
Englishman can carry his own _Cassell_, and get rid of it too--which is
more than the snail can--and can lose it--and can replace it for the
small sum of threepence, or if secondhand (for being in limp covers they
soon become "secondhand" in appearance) for considerably less. With a
volume from this library carried always in the tail-pocket of his
coat--the very place to carry a short tale--no one need ever be idle,
and every spare moment, as long as he is wearing the coat, can be well
occupied. These bits of books are our modern _Curiosities of
Literature_.
[Illustration: Handy Vols.]
Nor must we forget the DICKENS series of Messrs. ROUTLEDGE, who have
just brought out a dainty little edition of the _Cricket on the Hearth_.
This is a lasting work got up in a lasting manner. And so whether the
tale be long, or short, pointed or not, every man for a small sum, in
some instances a very small sum, can be his own talebearer: only the
tale isn't his, it is somebody else's, but his by purchase.
Among the handiest of handy books must be included the Pocket Diaries
for 1888, numbered, respectively, one, two, three,--of which No. 3 is
"A1,"--brought out by JOHN WALKER & CO. of Farringdon House, and
admirably adapted to all walkers, who can now bring them out for
themselves every day in the new year. One novelty there is in WALKER &
CO.'S division of pages, and this is that two are set apart for
"Addresses"--not political ones, of course--and two others for
"Visits"--(such an idea could only have struck a Walker who wanted an
object for his walk)--these being subdivided into columns headed
"_Name_," "_Reception Day_," "_Visit Received_," "_Visit Returned_,"
which in itself is quite a little manual, or _Walker's Dictionary_, of
politeness. To "Cash" is devoted a great deal too much space; but, of
course, if there is sufficient cash to fill it, so much the better. If
we might suggest a "rider" to WALKER, it would be that, as many persons,
who pay nothing else, are often most assiduous in "paying their
addresses" and in "paying visits," an equal space might be given to
business as represented by "Cash," and to pleasure as represented by the
two other items. The pencil is a triumph of ingenuity, and the binding
of No. 3 proves the truth of the old adage, that there is nothing like
leather, specially when the leather is Russian.
* * * * *
HUMILITY.--The _Pall Mall Gazette_, in its account of the consecration
of Truro Cathedral, stated how--
"The Archbishop of CANTERBURY and the Bishop of TRURO received
the Prince of WALES at the Phillpotts porch, and conducted His
Royal Highness to a footstool placed for him in the choir. Every
available inch of space was crowded."
Poor Royal Highness! only a "footstool" to sit upon. He was His Royal
Lowness on this occasion. If, however, for "footstool" we read
"faldstool," His Royal Highness's apparently uncomfortable position
becomes intelligible.
* * * * *