in a comparatively short space of time, of a reasonably complete
English library, by which I mean a library containing
the complete works of the supreme geniuses, representative important works
of all the first-class men in all departments, and specimen works
of all the men of the second rank whose reputation is really
a living reputation to-day. The scheme for a library,
which I now present, begins before Chaucer and ends with George Gissing,
and I am fairly sure that the majority of people will be startled
at the total inexpensiveness of it. So far as I am aware,
no such scheme has ever been printed before.



Chapter XI

AN ENGLISH LIBRARY: PERIOD I* (*For much counsel and correction
in the matter of editions and prices I am indebted
to my old and valued friend, Charles Young, head of the firm
of Lamley & Co., booksellers, South Kensington.)

For the purposes of book-buying, I divide English literature,
not strictly into historical epochs, but into three periods which,
while scarcely arbitrary from the historical point of view,
have nevertheless been calculated according to the space
which they will occupy on the shelves and to the demands
which they will make on the purse:

I. From the beginning to John Dryden, or roughly, to the end
of the seventeenth century.