PREFACE. IT is said that every age or period of a country's existence has some characteristic quality; something by which it may be distinguished from those which preceded it, and which has insensibly grown out of usages and laws that are constantly modifying and altering the forms and conditions of society, creating new wants, or directing the old into unaccustomed channels. If, then, we are to give some particular denomination to the present age, it surely may be called a Reading one-an Age of Books; for never did the press at any former period labour with a greater profusion of literature, nor authors more prodigally pour forth their stores of knowledge, in spite of the increasing difficulty of being distinguished amidst the competition of rivals-amidst that crowd eagerly advancing with the same desires, with an ambition panting for the honour of fame, or an avarice stimulated by the hopes of a lower reward. The multiplication of authors, however, is only a consequence of the increasing demand of readers. Education is spreading among all ranks in a manner and degree unprecedented; and authors have naturally risen up to supply the demand, by pouring out the stream of learning through every channel open to receive them. Yet in the multitude of readers, few are able to judge correctly of the merits of a work, while they acknowledge the pleasure which they derive from its perusal. Hence arises the province of the critic and the annotator; and this species of writing has therefore spread in proportion to the other. It has extended beyond its old domain of reviews, magazines, and "works of the learned," into every weekly and daily newspaper; so that a few hours only elapse before a volume, wet from the printing office, is dismantled, divided, and served up in portions to the public, with a deliberate judgment of its merits and a detailed analysis of its contents. This eagerness of the press to report progress is a necessary consequence of the multitude of publications; for more works are published than it is possible to read, and yet persons are expected in the intercourse of society |