The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-23 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS.

THE CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE--t 0 be com-
pleted in Six Monthly Sixpenny instalments—the
literary masterpiece of Isaac Disraeli, has just begun
to enter upon its periodical appearance from the
establishment of the Messrs. George Routledge and
Sons, of the Broadway, Ludgate-hill. It is beyond
all comparison the cheapest edition ever issued
from the press, of one of the most charming ency-
clopaedic compilations that was ever built up by a
single man of letters as a genuine labour of love !
Built up by him slowly, industriously, laboriously,
during a long series of years, bit by bit, as the
honeycombs are built up in a hive by a swarm of
bees, cell by cell, each formed of golden wax, culled
from innumerable leaves, and collected together, and
moulded into shape by the indefatigable worker,
each stored brimfull with the luscious honey of
knowledge, extracted by the same indomitable and
devoted gatherer of ambrosia, from the very heart or
core of unnumbered clusters of leaves—meaning
the leaves in the one case of books, in the other
of blossoms. Printed in double-columned pages, in
very minute but exqusitely beautiful type, this new
reissue of Isaac Disraeli's world-famous " Curiosi-
ties of Literature" will, because of its very cheap-
ness, be dearly welcomed by multitudes both of pro-
fessional and unprofessional cultivators of literature.
As a book of reference, as a book of instruction
and of entertainment, it is in its way just simply in-
valuable. It is a luxury that once taken into use
becomes a necessity. Assuming its place, for how-
ever brief an interval, upon our bookshelves—its
attempted removal thence afterwards would show
a gap not less unsightly than that revealed by the
loss of a front tooth.

FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCOTTISH LIFE, by
the Rev. Dr. Rogers (Houlston and Wright), is the
Eighth Thousand of a Shilling Volume of shrewd
dry humour, penned by a canny Scotchman, the
wallet of whose memory has had dropped into it
close upon five hundred anecdotes and stories, many
of them " ower true," and most of them original.
Only five years ago the first edition of the book
made its appearance, and already the issue has num-
bered up its eighth thousand. Dr. Rogers may con-
gratulate himself, therefore, upon having achieved
a rapid and unmistakeable success.
THE HANDY BOOK OF SHOPKEEPING—iS the title
of a capital Shopkeeper's Guide, published by
Houlston and Wright, and compiled by the author
of "Inquire Within," pp. 96, price one shilling,
and it certainly contains its money's worth of useful
and sometimes of really valuable information.
RIGHT FOODS FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN, by
the late T- Herbert Barker, M.D. (S. 0. Becton)
is the very book of books for young mothers—the
elementary treatise for the nursery—A No. 1 among
the guides to life's enjoyment.

FATHER PROITT'S DEATH.--The Times' Paris
correspondent says Mr. Francis Mahony, who
was a native of Cork, was, at one time, well known in
London literary circles as " Father Prout," under which
designation he published, some 30 years ago, a series of
most amusing articles, " The Prout Papers," in Fraser's
Magazine. To this periodizal he, as well as the late Dr.
Maginn and Sergeant Murphy, both Cork men, were fre-
quent contributors. His translation into Greek and Latin
of some of " Moore's Melociies," and of some well-known
Irish slang songs, such as " The Groves of Blarney," and
" The Night before Larry was Stretched," showed con-
siderable power of language and humour. " The Prout
Papers" were collected and published in one volume and
passed through several editions.