The Quarterly Review

ART. I.-1. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, M.A., F.R.S., Clerk of the Acts and Secretary to the Admiralty. Transcribed from the Shorthand Manuscript in the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, by the Rev. Mynors Bright, M.A., late Fellow and President of the College. With Lord Braybrooke's Notes. Edited, with Additions, by Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A. Vols. 1-6. London, 1893-1895.

2. Samuel Pepys and the World he lived in. By Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A. London, 1880.

3. Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S. Edited from the original MSS. at Wotton by William Bray, F.A.S. A New Edition, in Four Volumes. Corrected, revised, and enlarged. London, 1889.

T is not surprising that the elder D'Israeli should have

Literature.' Such a subject was peculiarly fitted to call into play the varied knowledge and to exercise the critical judgment of this most entertaining and searching writer'; and nowhere are the charms of autobiography, its historical value and its psychological interest, more effectively displayed than in the pages of that remarkable miscellany. The whole field of personal memoirs up to the times of the author is explored, and even those who have given most attention to this branch of literature can hardly fail to find here fresh illustrations of its philosophical attractions, as well as references to unsuspected sources of information. The first series of the 'Curiosities,' begun in 1791, was not completed until 1817. The learned compiler may then well have supposed that this subject, if not exhausted, had at any rate been treated after a comprehensive survey of its most striking features. If so, he was promptly Vol. 183.-No. 365. disillusioned.

disillusioned. Within the next few years, two diaries were published, each of which was destined to take a leading and a lasting place among the works which describe for us the social life and habits of bygone ages.

The manuscripts of both diaries were drawn, after more than a century had elapsed since they were written, from the dusty obscurity of libraries. There the one had lain entirely unnoticed, while the other was only known and valued by a private and limited circle. Both now engaged the close attention of accomplished editors, and enlisted, on their appearance, the critical services of the ablest reviewers of the age. In the literary world they at once attracted notice, and among general readers rapidly gained a popularity which every year has steadily increased. Thus it is that while the works of the royal and noble authors, the historians, divines, savants, courtiers, and politicians mentioned by D'Israeli-even those of that age of diaries,' as he justly calls it, the seventeenth century-repose for the most part in dignified neglect upon the shelves of public libraries, or are sought from the booksellers to enrich the private collections of the curious, those of the gay and garrulous Pepys and his most worthy' friend John Evelyn have passed into successive editions, adapted not only for the wealthiest purchasers and most discriminating students, but also for those who can only possess themselves of valuable works by the aid of popular impressions. Half-a-crown or less spent at a railway bookstall or stationer's shop will now procure the Memoirs of either, exhaustively indexed, and elucidated with the annotations of their original editors. The complete Kalendarium' of Evelyn can be obtained for a shilling, while Pepys' more diverting, if not more interesting, diary is to be had in separate parts for an even smaller sum. Diminutive booklets of Gleanings' and 'Peeps into Pepys' likewise attest his established popularity; while a companion to the diary, named at the head of this article, has also appeared, which by its light and lively style, and its author's easy mastery of his materials, is calculated to attract yet another generation of readers to the study of the fascinating pages of the vivacious Samuel Pepys, and to kindle a desire for an extended acquaintance with the world he lived in.'

The circumstances in which the two diaries were first introduced into public notice were favourable to their success. 'After much solicitation from many persons,' Lady Evelyn, widow of the diarist's great grandson, consented to the publication of the two MS. volumes which had been preserved since the writer's death in the Library at Wotton, where, it is said, they

had

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The Quarterly Review, Volume 183