appearance to be a volume, in itself, of pleasant and profitable perusal; composed perhaps in a quaint and original style, but in accordance with the characters of the Dramatis Personæ. Be this as it may, it is a work divested of all acrimonious feeling-is applicable to all classes of society, to whom harmless enthusiasm cannot be offensive-and is based upon a foundation not likely to be speedily undermined.

T. F. DIBDIN.

May 1, 1842.

studio of the painter or engraver. Had his natural talents, which were strong and elastic, been cultivated in early life, he would, in all probability, have attained a considerable reputation. How he loved to embellish-almost to satiety-a favourite work, may be seen by consulting a subsequent page towards the end of this volume. He planned and published the Physiognomical Portraits, a performance not divested of interest-but failing in general success, from the prints being, in many instances, a repetition of their precursors. The thought, however, was a good one; and many of the heads are powerfully executed. He took also a lively interest in Mr. Major's splendid edition of Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, a work, which can never want a reader while taste has an abidingplace in one British bosom.

Mr. Walmsley possessed a brave and generous spirit; and I scarcely knew a man more disposed to bury the remembrance of men's errors in that of their attainments and good qualities.

OR

Book-Madness;

CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

HISTORY, SYMPTOMS, AND CURE OF

THIS FATAL DISEASE.

IN AN EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO

RICHARD HEBER, Esq.

BY THE

REV. THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, F.S.A.

Styll am I besy bokes assemblynge,

For to have plenty it is a pleasaunt thynge
In my conceyt, and to have them ay in honde:
But what they mene I do nat understonde.

Pynson's Ship of Fools. Edit. 1509.

LONDON:

REPRINTED FROM THE FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHED IN

Advertisement,

In laying before the public the following brief and superficial account of a disease, which, till it arrested the attention of Dr. Ferriar, had entirely escaped the sagacity of all ancient and modern physicians, it has been my object to touch chiefly on its leading characteristics; and to present the reader (in the language of my old friend Francis Quarles) with an "honest pennyworth" of information, which may, in the end, either suppress or soften the ravages of so destructive a malady. I might easily have swelled the size of this treatise by the introduction of much additional, and not incurious, matter; but I thought it most prudent to wait the issue of the present " recipe,” at once simple in its composition aud gentle in its effects.

Some apology is due to the amiable and accomplished character to whom my epistle is addressed, as well as to the public, for the apparently con

fused and indigested manner in which the notes are attached to the first part of this treatise; but, unless I had thrown them to the end (a plan which modern custom does not seem to warrant), it will be obvious that a different arrangement could not have been adopted; and equally so that the perusal, first of the text, and afterwards of the notes, will be the better mode of passing judgment upon both. T. F. D.

Kensington, June 5, 1809.