publicity and self-revelation, distinct from aspirations for fame or distinction. Considered from this point of view, a catalogue partakes of the nature of history, and the titles of books may sometimes prove as instructive and interesting as the contents. In the lists given in these volumes-prepared on a similar principle to that on which the Dominican father recommended the slaughter of all the inhabitants of the captured heretical city-will be found autobiographies of persons of every station, from the monarch to the wandering beggar; dissertations advocating the most opposite opinions and remote forms of thought, from the newest hypotheses of science, or daring flights beyond the usually recognized limits of credibility and proof, to revivals of longburied superstitions and exploded fallacies; and imaginative productions of every grade of intellect, from the highest genius to a state not readily distinguishable from imbecility. The "Republic of Letters" has become in the fullest sense worthy of its name, with an equality of citizenship, a community of rights, and a mingling and jostling of its component members to which no political system offers a parallel.

The title of the original work indicates the period covered by it as extending to "the latter half of the nineteenth century." The earlier and later portions of it, however, were taken up and completed at long intervals, and the entries were not brought down to a common date under all the letters of the alphabet. The author's first intention seems to have been to end the work at the year 1850, and from A to O inclusive the entries, barring accidental omissions, were completed to that date. But before publication many additional insertions, extending in some instances to 1858, were made under those letters, without any attempt to comprise the full lists of the intervening years. The remainder of the work covers a much more extended period, with a more uniform limit, the entries from P to Z embracing complete lists to the end of 1869, with additions almost equally full to about the middle of 1870. Hence the period covered by this Supplement is also a variable one. Under the letters A to O it begins with the year 1850,-without, of course, repeating the entries of a later date in the original work, and under the remaining letters it begins with the year 1870. The whole extends to the end of 1888, with a very few entries of later date, mostly to include a completed series of volumes or related works or the last productions of a recently deceased writer. It would have been easy to insert many additional titles, as was done in the original work; but no complete lists to a later date could have been prepared without delaying the press; and the compiler did not desire to leave a straggling line of projections instead of a fixed boundary, and thus impose upon some future successor what has been one of the embarrassing complications of the present task, the necessity, namely, of referring at every step to the entries in an earlier work and connecting his own with them by a process of dovetailing. In the course of this labor many entries of earlier dates than those mentioned, which had been omitted by Allibone, have been supplied in the Supplement, but not systematically, and only, of course, in the case of authors whose publications extended to those dates,-i.e., 1850 under A to O, and 1870 under P to Z. The general plan and method of the original work have been followed in the Supplement, with slight modifications. The bibliographical details have been more uniformly and distinctly separated from the biographical matter; no references have been introduced in the list of an author's works to others on the same subject or of a kindred nature by different writers, and it has not been thought necessary to inform the reader where critical articles from which no quotations are given may be found, any former need of this kind being now supplied by Poole's "Index to Periodical Literature."

Of the authors whose names are entered in this work, some biographical in

formation beyond the mere mention of official or professional positions—such as might presumably be found on a title-page or in a publisher's advertisement-is given in the case of nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine. In general the details are very few, and are stated in the baldest form. Longer notices, besides occupying too much space, would often merely have presented the same facts in an expanded form, with the addition of critical estimates which, in cases where they would be likely to be sought for, are here appended in the form of extracts. The sources from which this information has been gathered are too numerous, and generally too well known as affording the most necessary material for the purpose, to be enumerated in full. The most authoritative and the most copious in details, though embracing comparatively few of the names included in the present work, is the "Dictionary of National Biography," now in course of publication, of which the first twenty-five volumes have been used, the last two or three having been received only in time to furnish some corrections in the press. Among works including brief biographies of many notable English writers, living or recent, "Men of the Time," in several editions, Saunders's "Celebrities of the Centuries," and "Women of the Day," by Frances Hays, have been constantly in hand. For cis-Atlantic authors "Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography" is the chief authority, as well for the number comprised in it as for its amplitude of details. Among works of a more general scope Thomas's "Dictionary of Biography" demands especial mention, while many minor publications of a similar character have each supplied some required dates or other particulars. Several works, chiefly English, devoted to local, professional, or other special subjects, have proved extremely valuable, the most important being Foster's "Men at the Bar" and "Alumni Oxonienses," the "Bibliotheca Cornubiensis" of Boase and Courtney, the "Encyclopædia of Living Divines" of Schaff and Jackson, and Crockford's "Clerical Directory," with Peerages, Medical Directories, Army Lists, and similar publications, and obituaries in the "Annual Register" and in literary journals. A good many facts have been incidentally collected in the course of miscellaneous reading, while in a smaller number of cases published biographies or autobiographies of particular writers have been examined. Finally, several hundred English and a few American authors have, in response to applications, furnished the materials required,—generally in no greater detail than was desirable, but occasionally with a fulness which would have imparted a liveliness to the narration not in keeping with its purpose and surroundings.

The number of the books of which the titles are inserted in these volumes is ninety-three thousand seven hundred and eighty. No entire class of works has been excluded; but single sermons, lectures and addresses, pamphlets in general, and schoolbooks, have been admitted only when they seemed for one reason or another to have a stronger claim to insertion than the general mass of such productions, or when, as must sometimes have happened, their form and character were unknown. In the great majority of cases the title is either given in full or abridged only by the omission of some unessential words. But in regard to a considerable number the compiler cannot feel sure that the phraseology had not been somewhat altered as well as curtailed in the only lists accessible, though never, it is hoped, to such an extent as to make it difficult to identify the book. More complete success, it is believed, has been attained, though not without occasional exceptions, in ascertaining the dates of first editions, and also, when of sufficient importance, those of last and revised editions, as well as in noting any marked variations of title, which sometimes indicate a real alteration in the scope or nature of a work, but more often apparently have a different purpose, and tend, at all events, to produce mistakes and confusion. The chief and in all respects most

important source from which the lists have been collected is, of course, the printed Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum, so far as published and received. These portions include in their multitude of entries the majority of the titles contained in this Supplement under the letters A to K and W to Z inclusive, with a few under each of the other letters. Catalogues of other libraries have been consulted from time to time, and a great number of publishers' catalogues have been constantly examined and used. The whole field is covered with tolerable completeness by the English Catalogue issued by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, & Co., and the successive American catalogues of Roorbach, Kelly, Leypoldt, and Bowker, the former with fewer omissions in the number of the entries, the latter-especially those of recent years— with greater fulness and exactness in the transcription of the names and titles. Some bibliographies of particular authors, either appended to their biographies or published separately, together with the bibliographical matter, in some cases very exact and adequate, in works already referred to as biographical authorities, have supplemented information derived originally from other quarters and have furnished occasional entries not recorded elsewhere. In the field of pseudonymous literature the Dictionary of Halkett and Laing and the "Initials and Pseudonyms" of Cushing have been the chief guides, but have not always been followed, many statements in books of this kind being necessarily based upon mere rumor or conjecture. The few independent additions to entries of this class in the present work have been received from the authors themselves or from others having personal knowledge of the facts. It should be added that, with very rare exceptions, pseudonymes known to be such, with no key to the real names, have not been admitted. Besides the bibliographical authorities already enumerated, and others of minor importance, lists of their own productions have been furnished by writers in connection with their biographies, and information has been incidentally gleaned from periodical publications.

The critical extracts number seven thousand four hundred and fifty. They have been taken for the most part, as will be evident on a cursory observation of the pages, from articles in leading weekly journals. Citations have occasionally been made from the principal monthly and quarterly periodicals; but, apart from the fact that comparatively few books are reviewed in such publications, the treatment is seldom of a strictly critical character, and still more rarely embodies any description or estimate at once particular and concise. Short passages from biographical and other works have also been occasionally inserted. All the quotations were made in the course of a close examination of the articles containing them, with the object in general of selecting such expressions of opinion as were fairly representative of the whole, and, where desirable and practicable, some terse account or characterization of the subject and nature of the work reviewed. It was necessary also, in many cases, to give some consideration to the internal evidence of the competence and impartiality of the critic; and in the longer extracts, especially those which embody or sum up a general view of the qualities of a remarkable work or distinguished author, an endeavor has been made to provide agreeable and suggestive reading.

It is almost needless to say that in a compilation like this errors and omissions are likely to be more frequent than in one of a much narrower scope and demanding a much smaller amount of research. Occasional oversight or inadvertence will not seem inexcusable to any one familiar with the condition of mind induced by a longcontinued sifting of materials often defective, abounding in discrepancies, suggestive at times of a deliberate intention to perplex or mislead. The amount of time and pains bestowed on innumerable points in the investigation may have seemed occa

sionally, even to the "harmless drudge" engaged in it, disproportionate to the end,— especially when this proved to be unattainable. There is, however, only one rule and method in all labor of this kind, and the very minuteness and multiplicity of the questions to be solved exert a constraining influence and impose conformity to the smallest obligations of the task.

Sic ingens rerum numerus jubet atque operum lex.

The chief assistance which the compiler has had in the preparation of the work has been from members of his own family. He is indebted to Mr. John Edmands, of the Philadelphia Mercantile Library, for special facilities in the use of an excellent bibliographical collection, and to Dr. Charles Warren Greene for suggestions and emendations while the volumes have been passing through the press. Nor is he willing to dismiss them from his hands without an acknowledgment of the careful and skilful aid of Mr. Joseph McCreery in the revision of the proofs.

PHILADELPHIA, May, 1891.

N.B.-Cross-references are inserted (1) from assumed to real names; (2) from the first to the last part of a compound name; (3) from titles of nobility to family names; (4) from an earlier to a later The references" ante, vol. i., ii., iii." are to entries in the original work, the first volume, in the copy used, including the letters A to L. References "supra" and "infra" are to entries in different parts of the Supplement.

name.

Aaron, Charles Howard. 1. A Practical Trea- | 1862, 12mo. 2. Ralph, and other Poems, N. York, 1866, tise on Testing and Working Silver Ores, San Francisco, 12mo. 3. Stories in Verse, N. York, 1869, 12mo. 4. 1876, 12mo. 2. Leaching Gold and Silver Ores. The Ballads of Good Deeds, N. York, 1872, 12mo. 5. Poems, Plattner and Kiss Process. A Practical Treatise. San N. York, 1879, sq. 12mo. 6. City of Success, and other Francisco, 1878, 8vo. 3. Assaying. In 3 Parts. Pt. I., Poems, N. York, 1883, 12mo. 7. Poems; new ed., enl., Gold and Silver Ores. Pt. II., Gold and Silver Bullion. Kingston, N. York, 1885, 12mo. Pt. III., Lead, Copper, Tin, Mercury, Zinc, Nickel, and Cobalt. With Appendix to Pts. I. and III. 2 vols. San Francisco.