done so. To illustrate such books, to add to their information or
correct their blunders, would be useless and almost ridiculous. They
should be left to die of mere powerlessness and exhaustion, or to wither
under the wholesome influence of a just and manly criticism.

But there are books of another kind--books {18} which our worthy
bibliopoles designate as "standard works." These are the books of
competent workmen--books which are the result of honest labour and
research, and which from the moment of their publication assume a
permanent station in our national literature. Even in such books there
are many things incomplete, many things erroneous. But it is the
interest of every man that such books should be rendered as complete as
possible; and whatever tends to illustrate or correct works of that
class will be sure of insertion in our columns.

We would point to Macaulay's _England_, and Hallam's _Introduction to
the Literary History of the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries_, his _Middle
Ages_, and his _Constitutional History_, and we may add, as
illustrations of a different kind, _The Annals of the Stage_ of our
excellent friend Mr. Collier, and _The Handbook of London_ of our valued
contributor Mr. Peter Cunningham, as examples of the sort of
publications to which we allude. Such were the books we had in our mind,
when we spoke in our Prospectus of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" becoming,
through the inter-communication of our literary friends, "a most useful
supplement to works already in existence--a treasury towards enriching
future editions of them."

Another correspondent--a bibliographical friend--suggests that, for
various reasons, which bibliographers will appreciate, our Prospectus
should have a place in the body of our work. We believe that many of our