REVIEWS THE BOOKSELLER. 203 



Mr. Combe's views, wliich were entirely in unison with those of the 

 author ot the ' Vestiges.' But what is more conclusive than all 

 this, is the fact that during the whole of that correspondence the 

 . person to whom we have referred invariably assumed Mr. Combe to 

 be, and addressed him as the author of the ' Vestiges,' and this was 

 never denied, or in any way contradicted by Mr. Combe. Erom 

 these facts, and from that time forth, it became a settled conviction 

 in his mind that Mr. G-eorge Combe was the author of the ' Vestiges ' 

 — and we are not surprised at it. It is upon this authority that the 

 Catalogue of the British Museum has been altered, and the book 

 will now be found under the head of Greorge Combe." The person 

 thus mysteriously intimated as one " whose name is second to none 

 in the world of science," is understood to be Professor Owen. But 

 the question he thus deals with is no scientific one, and we, for one, 

 differ from him entirely as to any internal evidence of such author- 

 ship, in the style. If Combe be the author, death, we presume, 

 must be held to put an end to that claim of courtesy which requires 

 us to respect such author's secret. But the denial has been made in 

 the most explicit terms, by Mr. Robert Cox, and others best quali- 

 fied to do so. George Combe is certainly not the author of the 

 "Vestiges." Its style is not his. JSTeither is it that of Eobert 

 Chambers. But under the old Edinburgh theory of its authorship, 

 it is by no means improbable that George Combe is a vestige of the 

 joint creator of the book; as Eobert Chambers has long been sus- 

 pected, and Professor Nichol long believed to be. 



Eeturning to the Bookseller : its Trade Gossip ; Monthly Obi- 

 tuary ; Literary and Historical Sketches ; and Notices of Books : are 

 all interesting, well got up, and show things from a new point of 

 view. It is well that the Trade should have its literary mouth- 

 piece, if it be for nothing else than to show the author what it 

 thinks of him. The tailor fully believes he makes the man, though 

 popular proverb has long required nine tailors to complete such 

 creation. We learn now that it is the bookseller who makes the 

 author, — for which he ought only to be too thankful, without com- 

 plaining of transatlantic booksellers' reprintings, and the like pro- 

 cesses by which the hungry author is sometimes forced into the con- 

 dition to inquire, in the words of old Eliphaz the Temanite :-^^ 

 Should a wise man. utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the 

 east wind ? D. w. 



