324 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



and exists only so long as the demand. While one man will read 

 Cuvier, a thousand will read and re-read Scott. Creation is cer- 

 tainly the highest effort of intellect ; but it requires no ordinary 

 powers to collect from the vast mass of knowledge ; to distinguish 

 between right and wrong, and to work it up into a systematic form, 

 that it may be a reference for the scholar. 



The character of a people is determined by their productions. 

 Books are the flowers of time, and exhibit in their character, not 

 only national, but individual qualities. A few centuries ago, when 

 the means of acquiring knowledge were confined to the cowled and 

 secluded priest, the phenomena of Nature and the discoveries of 

 Science were alike unknown. When the light of truth was absorb- 

 ed in the gloomy jargon of Monachism, that made ignorance a vir- 

 tue, the books then produced were the labours of strenuous idleness, 

 that served but to confirm and perpetuate the evil. By slow de- 

 grees, knowledge strui^^^gled through the dim obscure, creating as it 

 arose, the means for its promulgation, elementary works, compen- 

 diums, cyclopaedias, lexicons, dictionaries of language, of science, 

 and art ; all issuing from the original source as so many devaricat- 

 ing streams, until a moral and intellectual change became a national 

 characteristic. 



The demand for elementary works, and the numerous additions 

 to our books of reference, are particular signs of the age ; it bespeaks 

 a general desire for knowledge. No longer content with that smaHjJ 

 modicum of learning which was handed from father to son as a spe- 

 cies of oral tradition. Englishmen see that they must think for 

 themselves, and that their success and happiness depend upon the 

 solidity of their judgment. Might is no longer right. The compe- 

 tition is now with powers which acknowledge no visible opponent ; 

 and ignorance becomes synonymous with defeat. To supply the 

 means adequate to success is the object of every one ; and thus, 

 whatever hope of fame the lexicographist may have, he is, at least, 

 certain of selling his work, and communicating intelligence to thou- 

 sands, however backward they may be in acknowledging the debt. 



Works of reference are daily increasing, and must continue to do 

 so, since they register successive discoveries. During the last 

 twenty years, elementary works have multiplied almost beyond cal- 

 culation, while the advancement of science and art gives constant 

 encouragement to a further circulation. On the continent the same 

 spirit prevails. The French produce with a facility that seems to 

 distance competition: it is true their compilations area sort of joint- 

 stock company : rather than trust to the formality of one person, 

 they engage seven or eight *' Docteurs en Medecine ;" and hence 

 their " Dictionnaire des Termes" is built up with far less skill and 

 precision than the work now under review. With a slight remain- 

 ing touch for the speculative and the absurd, les Docteurs Fran9aises 

 combine the hypothetical with the rational, error with truth, and 

 much that is useless and unnecessary. What are such words as 

 Aabara, Abarnahas, Abraxas, Abracadabra, Abracalan, and a hun- 



