1832.] Monthly Review of Literature. 235 



though even the Byron of his age can lay no claim to steer clear of the now- 

 universal law proclaiming the reign of 12mos. and sixty-penny books, yet we 

 think he might fairly appeal to his peers for a rescinding of the sentence, on the 

 ground of its being inflicted by a friend ; et tu, Brute ? and with much the same 

 shew of justice as Caesar himself, had his friend Marc Antony, after weeping and 

 preaching over his remains, gone and given his commentaries to the Roman 

 world, on the most villainously old pieces of parchment or papyrus he could get, 

 and copied them with a stylus like a skewer ! Had he but dreamed of future 

 fate, like this, well might the lordly poet have exclaimed, (with slight alteration,) 

 with Hassan the camel driver : 



" Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day, 

 When first from England's coast I bent my way." 



But more seriously, what the poet may here suffer, from decreased size and 

 splendour of appearance, will doubtless be amply compensated by wide-spread 

 circulation and popularity ; and if the publisher also can contrive to compete 

 with French cheapness in this case, he will deserve the success he meets with. 

 In the cheap, portable shape it has assumed, Mr. Moore's Life of Lord Byron 

 cannot but be esteemed a signal benefit for the people at large, and the reading 

 public in particular ; and for the manner in which he has executed the delicate 

 and important task, we believe we may refer the more curious to a more copious 

 account, on its appearance in the first quarto edition. 



FAMILY CLASSICAL LIBRARY. PLUTARCH. TRANSLATED BY JOHN LANG- 

 HORN, D.D., AND WILLIAM LANGHORN, M.A. Vol. III. 



WE perceive, not without pleasure, as a proof that some affection for sound 

 and useful reading still survives the evanescent and worthless taste engendered 

 by the soi-disant fashionable literature of the day, that this excellent and long 

 desirable re-publication has at length reached its twenty-fifth Number, in the 

 third volume of the admirable and entertaining Lives of Plutarch. We have 

 before had occasion to speak of the plan and object of the work in the manner 

 it deserved ; and the judgment shewn in the selection, as the series advances, 

 fully justifies our expectations, increasing, as we think it has done, in interest 

 and entertainment in almost every volume from the commencement. The 

 ground it now occupies is the most rich and valuable that could have been 

 chosen ; and to have, instead of the old lumbering editions, the sight of which 

 was enough to deter a young reader, a few light, portable volumes, at the sum 

 of 5s., embracing all that is most valuable in ancient literature, forms an im- 

 provement in publication deserving every praise and encouragement. 



ANTHOLOGIA SACRA : OR SELECT THEOLOGICAL EXTRACTS ON SUBJECTS, DOC- 

 TRINAL, PRACTICAL, AND EXPERIMENTAL, SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY 

 THE REV. BERNARD GILPIN, M.A., AND W. H. VALPY, ESQ. 



THE practice of superficial reading is one of the literary delinquences of these 

 times, and we are often ready to condemn all the manufacturers of " Extracts" 

 " Abridgments" " Spirits" " Abstracts" and " Epitomes," as the patrons 

 and founders of the vice. For if a student wishes to distinguish himself in any 

 department of letters, he must converse with the fathers of our literature through 

 their pondrous tomes, and exercise his own judgment, taste, and industry, in 

 compiling a common-place book for himself, in which shall be found " Extracts," 

 that have first passed through the alembick of his own mind. 



Theology however, in all its branches, " Doctrinal, Practical, and Experimen- 

 tal," has, in different ages and countries, called forth such a multitude of master 

 minds, that no man who has not devoted his whole life to the study of their pori- 

 drous folios, can expect to become familiar even with the titles, much less the 

 contents of their multifarious works. To those, therefore, who are not divines 

 by profession, and yet feel a commendable anxiety to know the opinions of the 

 most eminent theologians, upon all the peculiarities of Christian doctrine and 

 practice, we can cordially recommend this handsome volume. Here they will 



