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778 Reviews and Literary Notices. been admirably done by Mr. Duyckinck; 3d, a full and very interesting account of American libraries by Mr. Edwards; and 4th, a classed list of books written and pub- lished in the United States during the last forty years, arranged in thirty-one appro- priate departments, with a supplementary thirty-second of Addenda. In some in- stances, as in giving tables of the pro- ceedings of learned societies,-the period embraced is nearly a century. A general alphabetical index completes the volume. The several heads are, Bibliography, Col- lections, Theology, Jurisprudence, Medi- cine and Surgery, Natural History (in five subdivisions), Chemistry and Pharmacy, Natural Philosophy, Mathematics and As- tronomy, Philosophy, Education (in three subdivisions), Modern Languages, Philol- ogy, American Antiquities, Indians and Languages, History (in three subdivisions), Geography, Useful Arts, Military Science, Naval Science, Rural and Domestic Econ- omy, Politics, Commerce, Belles Lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Freemasonry, Mormon- ism, Spiritualism, Guide Books, Maps and Atlases, Periodicals. This list is enough to show the great value of the "Guide" to students and collectors. The volume will serve to give both Americans and Eu- ropeans a juster notion of the range and tendency, as well as amount, of literary activity in the United States. As the work of a cultivated and intelligent for- eigner, it has all the more claim to our acknowledgment, and also to our indul- gence where we discover omissions or in- accuracies. The second volume whose title stands at the head of our article would demand no special notice from us, were it not for the admirable manner in which it is exe- cuted and the judgment evinced in the selection of the books which it catalogues. The Boston Library may well be congrat- ulated on having at its head a gentleman so experienced and competent as Professor Jewett. He has hitherto distinguished him- self in a department of literature in which little notoriety is to be won, his labors in which, however, are appreciated by the few whose quiet suffrage outvalues the noisy applause of the moment. His little work on the "Construction of Library Catalogues" is a truly valuable contribu- tion to letters, rendering, as it does, the work of classification more easy, and in- [June, creasing the chances of our getting good general directories to the books already in our libraries, without which the num- ber of volumes we gather is only an in- crease of incumbrance. It is a great detri- ment to sound and exhaustive scholarship, that the books for students to read should be left to chance; and we owe a great deal more than we are apt to acknowledge to men who, like Mr. Jewett, enable us to find out the books that will really help us. Dr. Johnson, to be sure, commends the habit of "browsing" in libraries; and this will do very well for those whose memory clinches, like the tentacula of zoophytes, around every particle of nourishment that comes within its reach. But the habit tends rather to make ready talkers than thorough scholars; and he who is left to his chances in a collection of books grasps like a child in the "grab-bag" at a fair, and gets, in nine cases out of ten, pre- cisely what he does not want. We think that a great mistake is made in the multiplying of libraries in the same neighborhood, unless for some specialty, such as Natural History or the like. It is sad to think of the money thus wasted in duplicates and triplicates. Rivalry in such cases is detrimental rather than advan- tageous to the interests of scholarship. Instead of one good library, we get three poor ones; and so, instead of twenty men of real learning, we are vexed with a score of sciolists, who are so through no fault of their own. We hope that the movement now on foot, to give something like ade- quacy to the University Library at Cam- bridge, will receive the aid it deserves, not only from graduates of the College, but from all persons interested in the literary advancement of the country. So there be one really good library in the United States, it matters little where it is, for stu- dents will find it, and they should at least be spared the necessity of going abroad in order to master any branch of learning. A great library is of incalculable benefit to any community. It saves infinite waste of time to the thinker by enabling him to know what has already been thought. It is of greater advantage (and that advan- tage is of a higher kind) than any semina- ry of learning, for it supplies the climate and atmosphere, without which good seed is sown in vain. It is not merely that books are the "precious life-blood of master-spir-