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Titles of Books

useful to know. that a volume of matter may be contained in A very small space. very small space. "The We submit the following curious particulars respecting the TITLES OF Books.-The Jewish, and many Oriental authors, OF BOOKS. -The Jewish, and many Oriental authors, were fond of allegorical titles, which always shews the most puer le age of taste. The titles were usually adapted to their obscure works. It might exercise an able enigmatist to explain their allusions; for we must understand by "The Heart of Aaron," a commentary on several of the prophets.

Bones of Joseph" is an introduction to the Talmud. "The Garden of Nuts," and "The Golden Apples," are theological questions, and "The Pomegranate with its Flower," is a treatise of ceremonies no longer practised. Jortin gives a title, which he says, of all the fantastical titles he can recollect, is one of the prettiest. A Rabbin published a catalogue of Rabbinical writers, and called it Lab Dormientium, from "Like the best wine of my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." It has a double meaning, of which he was not aware, for most of his Rabbinical brethren talk very much like men in their sleep.

Almost all their works bearsuch titles as, Bread, Gold, Silver, Roses, Eyes, &c.; in a word, any thing that meant nothing. , Eyes, &c.; in a word, any thing that meant nothing.

Affected title-pages were not peculiar to the Orientalists; but the Greeks and the Romans have shewn a finer taste. the Greeks and the Romans have shewn a finer taste.

They had their Cornucopias, or horns of abundance; Limones, or meadows; Pinakidions, or tablets; Pancarpes, or all sorts of fruits: titles not unhappily adapted for the miscellanists The nine books of Herodotus, and the nine epistles of Æschines, were respectively honoured by the name of a Muse; and three orations of the latter, by those of the Graces.

The modern fanatics have had a most barbarous taste for titles. We could produce numbers from abroad, and also at home. Some works have been called, "Matches Lighted at the Divine Fire," and one "The Gun of Penitence:" a colof passages from the Fathers, is called, "The Shop of the Spiritual Apothecary:" we have "The Bank of Faith," and "The Sixpennyworth of Divine Spirit:" one of these works bears the following elaborate one; "Some fine Baskets baked in the Oven of Charity, carefully conserved for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet Swallows of Salvation." Sometimes their quaintness has some humour One Sir Humphrey Lind, a zealous puri- , which a Jesuit answered by another, entitled, " A Pair of Spectacles for Sir Humphrey Lind." The retorted, by "A Case for Sir Humphrey Lind's Spectacles."

Some of these obscure titles have an entertaining absurdity; as, "The Three Daughters of Job," which is a treatise on the three virtues of patience, fortitude, and pain. The Innocent Love, or the Holy Knight," is a description of the ardours of a saint for the Virgin. "The Sound of the Trumpet," is a work on the day of judgment; and "A Fan to drive away Flies," is a theological treatise on purgatory.

The title which George Gascoigne, who had great merit in his day, has given to his collection, may be considered as a specimen of the titles of his times. It was printed in 1576. He calls it "A hundred sundrie Floures bounde up in one small Poesie; gathered partly by translation in the fyne and outlandish gardens of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarche, Ariosto, and others; and partly by invention out of our own fruitefull orchardes in Englande; yielding sundrie sweet savours of tragicall, comicall, and morall discourses, both pleasaunt and profitable to the well-swelling noses of learned readers." LITERARY LABOUR AND PERSEVERANCE. - The Rev. Wil liam Davy, curate of Lustleigh, Devon, in the year 1807, finished a work in twenty-six volumes, of which the following is the title :- "A System of Divinity, in a Course of Sermons on the first Institutions of Religion-on the Being and Attributes of God -on some of the most important Articles of the Christian Religion, in Connection-and on the several Virtues and Vices of Mankind; with Occasional Discourses. Being a Compilation of the best Sentiments of the Polite Writers and eminent sound Divines, both ancient and modern, on the same subjects, properly connected, with Improvements; particularly adapted for the Use of Chief Families, and Students in Divinity, for Churches, and for the Benefit of Mankind in general." The author of the work bearing this astounding title, once attempted to publish it by subscription; in which he failed: he being poor, and unable to venture its publication, resolved to print it himself; for which purpose he procured as many worn-out types from a country printing-office as enabled him to print two pages at once; which, with the addition of a press of his own manufacture, he set to work in the year 1795, serving every office himself, from compositor to printer's-devil: and proceeding regularly page by page, he struck off forty copies of the first three hundred pages, half of which he distributed among the reviews, the bishops, and the universities, with a view of attracting public attention; but here also he failed: when he became determined to treat a misjudging world with contempt, and accordingly continued to print off fourteen copies of each, and at the end of twelve years finished the whole six-and-twenty volumes.