11. PRIDEAUX'S LIFE of MOHAMMED, amplified, so as to present a comprehensive History of Mohammedanism.
12. STRUTT'S SPORTS and PASTIMES, condensed, and illustrated with copious Notes from Brand and other eminent Antiquaries.
&c. &c. &c.
Under the title of "Select Library" it is proposed to publish a Series of Works upon such a plan as may remove all difficulty on the part of Parents and Tutors as to what books of an instructive and entertaining character they may, without hesitation, place in the hands of those in whose moral as well as intellectual training they are most deeply interested.
1. It cannot be denied that much of the Standard Literature of England, though beautiful for the most part in style, elevated in sentiment, and generally moral in its tendency, is yet defaced, and rendered unfit for the promiscuous reading of youth, by the not unfrequent occurrence of passages of an objectionable kind. Many of our most celebrated works have thus been hitherto withheld from our children, from an apprehension that the mental benefit to be derived from their perusal must be purchased at the costly sacrifice of a high tone of moral thought and feeling, which is but too likely to accrue from an unguarded use of them. All pertaining to intellect and its development is to be valued; but it is worth nothing compared with morals. One object, then, of the "Select Library" will be to send forth editions of some of our best writers thus corrected. And in all the cases which we contemplate, it is satisfactory to find that this can be done without at all injuring their real value. Indeed, a judicious revision will not seldom remedy that prolixity and occasional heaviness which the young so often complain of in our older writers.
2. Further: there are many works which, apart from their high price, it would be injudicious to place in the hands of the young, on account of their great length. The junior student would be deterred from reading such books as Froissart's or Hollinshed's Chronicles, were he required to master the whole of them. Their extreme value, as the best sources whence our nation's history may be derived, is on this account lost to him. It is, therefore, most desirable that works of this character should be placed within his reach, judiciously and invitingly compressed; not, indeed, in such a way as to destroy the distinctive character of the work itself, but so as to present the whole substance of it, divested of those portions which are not an essential part of its entireness. This, also, our "Library" proposes to do.
3. Original works, on popular and useful subjects, will from time to time be added.
It will be seen from the above outline, that the Works, though primarily purposed for the young, will yet be suitable to a large number of older Readers, especially in the middle and lower classes; and it is expected that they will be found useful for Lending-Libraries, School-Libraries, Prizes, &c. &c.
The "Select Library" will appear at short intervals, in volumes of a duodecimo size, bound in cloth, each of which will be purchaseable by itself. The price will vary with the thickness of the volumes; but will be made as moderate as is consistent with proper editorial care, good typography, and a due proportion of embellishment.