Magazines multiplied.
Arose in glory the Edinburgh, and then the Quarterly Review--Maga,
like a new sun, looked out from heaven--from her golden urn a hundred
satellites drew light--and last of all, "the Planetary Five," the
Annuals, hung their lamps on high; other similar luminous bodies emerged
from the clouds, till the whole circumference was bespangled, and
astronomy became the favourite study with all ranks of people, from the
King upon the throne to the meanest of his subjects. Now, will any one
presume to deny, that this has been a great change to the better, and
that there is now something worth living for in the world? Look at our
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
illustrate the high ground which periodical literature is daily
attaining in this country. Of this ascendancy, the volume before us is
indeed a fine specimen, and one of which we have reason to entertain a
national pride. We know it to be a common practice with publishers on
the continent to produce long works volume by volume, so that Dr.
Lardner's plan is by no means novel; but we should also bear in mind
that, compared with our family and cabinet libraries, the majority of
similar foreign works are mere flimsy productions; and the _Encyclopedie
Methodique_, published in monthly volumes, in Paris, both in quantity
and execution, will not reach our literary standards of 1829. As Dr.
Lard