298 Advantages and Disadvantages of 



to see the evils and abuses with which they are sometimes 

 attended, and to which they are always more or less liable, as 

 far as possible removed. 



It is to be regretted, as being, however, an almost unavoid- 

 able evil, that works on natural history are, for the most part, 

 necessarily expensive, especially if they contain plates ; still 

 more, if the plates are coloured, as, in many cases, they must 

 be, fully to answer the purpose intended ; and, most of all, if 

 these are really well executed, and the work splendidly got 

 up. The cost, for example, of such a work as Sowerby's 

 English Botany (not to take one of larger calibre), extending 

 as it did to six and thirty good-sized volumes, though pub- 

 lished at a moderate price, would amount (I speak at a rough 

 guess) to, perhaps, near 50Z. or more. Now, this may be 

 thought a serious sum to pay for a favourite hobby, for the 

 mere gratification of one's taste ; and many of those who took 

 the work in would have been deterred, I suspect, from pur- 

 chasing it, had the money been to be paid down for it in a 

 lump. But, as it came out in monthly numbers, and occu- 

 pied a course of years in its completion, we some of us now 

 find our libraries enriched with a costly and truly valuable 

 book, which, had it been published all at once, we might 

 hardly have thought ourselves justified in purchasing. It will 

 be said, perhaps, in reply, that this way of representing things 

 is mere self-delusion, invented for the sole purpose of quieting 

 the consciences of those who choose to indulge in such elegant 

 and expensive luxuries ; for that the same identical sum of 

 money, to a penny, is paid for the article, whether it be taken 

 in seriatim or bought complete. No doubt, the same sum is 

 paid ; but, being paid gradually, and by small instalments, dis- 

 tributed, as it were, through a course of many years, the tax 

 falls lightly, and is scarcely felt. This, then, is one of the 

 advantages of publishing works in the form of periodical 

 numbers : it brings them within the reach of men of moderate 

 means ; and, therefore, extends their circulation, and, conse- 

 quently, their utility. 



Another advantage of this method is, that it gives oppor- 

 tunity, not only for correcting any mistakes which the author 

 may have inadvertently fallen into at the commencement of his 

 labours, but also for including in the work all the recent dis- 

 coveries, which are continually being made during the pro- 

 gress of publication, and thus renders the Flora or Fauna, 

 &c., far more complete than it could have been, had the whole 

 issued simultaneously from the press. Take, again, as an 

 example in point, the case of English Botany, the first volume 

 of which bears, in the titlepage, the date of 1790, and the 



