of literature. The late discussion,
therefore, about books has been of use; it has made known to the great
community of people, who now can read, the fact, that there are certain
books, a hundred more or less, far more worth reading than the popular
and periodical literature of the day. If this discovery could be
impressed upon the public mind with practical effect, the result would
be a beneficial change in their condition. The abundant tattle and
affected interest about names and things of mean and transient
notoriety, and the discursive dinner-table gossip of the world would
then perhaps subside; and English conversation would become a constant
and a beneficial intellectual enjoyment.

FOOTNOTES:

[99] Croker's 'Boswell,' pp. 767, 8vo. ed.

[100] 'The Choice of Books,' p. 37.

[101] Mr Lowell's Address at the dedication of the Free Public Library,
Chelsea, Massachusetts.

[102] Notes to Bacon's 'Essays.'

[103] Mr. Lowel.

Art. IX.--1. _Popular Government. Four Essays._ By Sir Henry Sumner
Maine. Second Edition. London, 1886.

2. _Democracy in America._ By Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated by Henry
Reeve. New Edition. London, 1862.

3. _On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789._
Translated by Henry Reeve. Second Edition. London, 1873.

4. _Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with
Nassau W. Senior, 1834-59._ London, 1872.

5. _On the Government of Dependencies._ By Sir George Cornewall Lewis.
London, 1841.

6. _On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion._ By the Same.
London, 1849.

7. _A Dialogue on the best Form of Government._ By the Same. London,
1863.

8. _The English Constitution._ By Walter Bagehot. Revised Edition.
London, 1883.

Of the latest Work on the Characteristics of Democracy we are precluded
from speaking, as Sir Henry Maine's valuable Essays first appeared in
the pages of this Review. But we desire on the present occasion to call
attention to some writers on the subject, who are almost unknown to a
younger generation, or known only by occasional references made to them
by those who were well acquainted with the writers and their works. And
among these half-forgotten names few perhaps will recur more frequently
in the recollections of the best-informed men of from forty-five to
sixty, or more surprise those who have entered on life since their
owners left it, than those of Alexis de Tocqueville, Nassau William
Senior,