appears to have adopted the very worst that could have been selected. I
need not tell you that I have no idea of undertaking such a thing, and I
really have no suspicion (I wish I had) that anybody else is thinking of
doing it:--or, in other words, I am not attempting to make use of your
columns by insinuating a preparatory puff for a work in progress, or
even in contemplation. I only mention the book as one of a class which
may be essentially benefited by your offering a receptacle for
illustrations, additions, and corrections, such as individually, or in
small collections, are of little or no value, and are frequently almost
in the very opposite condition to those things which are of no value to
any body but the owner. For instance, when I was in the habit of seeing
many of the books noted by Herbert, and had his volumes lying beside me,
I made hundreds, perhaps thousands, of petty corrections, and many from
books which he had not had an opportunity of seeing, and of which he
could only reprint incorrect descriptions. All of these, though trifling
in themselves, are things which should be noticed in case of a reprint;
but how much time and trouble would it cost an editor to find and
collate the necessary books? That, to be sure, is his business; but the
question for the public is, _Would_ it be done at all? and could it in
such cases be done so well in any other way, as by appointing some place
of rendezvous for the casual and incidental materials for improvement
which may fall in the way of readers pursuing different lines of
inquiry, and rewarded, as men in pursuit of truth always are, whatever
may be their success as to their _immediate_ object, by finding more
than they are looking for--things, too, which when they get into their
right places, show that they were worth finding--and, perhaps, unknown
to those more conversant with the subject to which they belong, just
because they were in the out-of-the-way place where they were found by
somebody who was looking for something else.