literature now, and it is all periodical together. A thousand daily,
thrice-a-week, twice-a week, weekly newspapers, a hundred monthlies,
fifty quarterlies, and twenty-five annuals! No mouth looks up now and is
not fed; on the contrary, we are in danger of being crammed; an empty
head is as rare as an empty stomach; the whole day is one meal, one
physical, moral, and intellectual feast; the Public goes to bed with a
Periodical in her hand, and falls asleep with it beneath her pillow.

What blockhead thinks now of reading Milton, or Pope, or Gray? Paradise
Lost is lost; it has gone to the devil. Pope's Epistles are returned to
the dead-letter office; the age is too loyal for "ruin seize thee,
ruthless king," and the oldest inhabitant has forgotten "the curfew
tolls."--_Blackwood's Magazine._

* * * * *




THE SELECTOR, AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS._

* * * * *


DR. LARDNER'S CYCLOPAEDIA.


_History of Scotland. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart._ Vol. I.

The rapid and sketchy page just quoted from _Blackwood's Magazine_ will