open to this objection, and I have reserved them for favourable consideration. Mather's _Magnalia_ might do, but the binding does not please me; Cureton's _Corpus Ignatianum_ might also do if it were not too thin. I do not like taking Norton's _Genuineness of the Gospels_, as it is just possible some one may be wanting to know whether the Gospels are genuine or not, and be unable to find out because I have got Mr. Norton's book. Baxter's _Church History of England_, Lingard's _Anglo-Saxon Church_, and Cardwell's _Documentary Annals_, though none of them as good as Frost, are works of considerable merit; but on the whole I think Arvine's _Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious Anecdote_ is perhaps the one book in the room which comes within measurable distance of Frost.... Some successor I must find, or I must give up writing altogether, and this I should be sorry to do.--S. BUTLER. _Essays on Life, Art, and Science._ ON THE SIGHT OF A GREAT LIBRARY What a world of wit is here packed up together! I know not, whether this sight doth more dismay, or comfort me: it dismays me, to think that here is so much that I cannot know; it comforts me, to think that this variety yields so good helps, to know what I should. There is no truer word than that of Solomon: 'There is no end of making many books.' This sight verifies it. There is no end: it were pity there should. God hath given to man a busy soul; the agitation whereof cannot but, through time and experience, work out many hidden truths: to suppress these, would be no other than injurious to mankind, whose minds like unto so many candles should be kindled by each other. The thoughts of our deliberation are most accurate: these we vent into our papers. What a happiness is it, that, without all offence of necromancy, I may here call up any of the ancient worthies of learning, whether human or divine, and confer with them of all my doubts! that I can, at pleasure, summon whole synods of reverend fathers and acute doctors from all the coasts of the earth, to give their well-studied judgements, in all points of question, which I propose! Neither can I cast my eye casually upon any of these silent masters, but I must learn somewhat. It is a wantonness, to complain of choice. No law binds us to read all: but the more we can take in and digest, the better-liking must the mind needs be. Blessed be God, that set up so many clear lamps in his Church: now, none, but the wilfully blind, can plead darkness. And blessed be the memory of those his faithful servants, that have left their blood, their spirits, their lives, in these precious papers; and have willingly wasted themselves into these during monuments, to give light unto others.--JOSEPH HALL. _Occasional Meditations._ REFLECTIONS IN A LIBRARY