The term Bible means The Book.

Homer is called the "Father of poetry."

Thackeray's first success was "Vanity Fair."

Even Milton stumbled into "mixed metaphor."

Boswell has been termed the "prince of biographers."

Poems giving instruction on certain subjects are called didactic.

The last six books of Spenser's "Faerie Queene" were lost at sea.

Roman authors all dedicated their works to some friend or patron.

The Early English Text Society made its first publication in 1864.

The authors of the seventeenth century wrote slavish "dedications."

The oldest book extant, Egyptian papyrus, is assigned to 2000 B. C.

"Read much, but not many works," is the advice of Sir W. Hamilton.

A man may play the fool in everything else but poetry, says Montaigne.

Mr. W. E. Ellsworth, of Chicago, paid $14,800 for a Gutenberg Bible in 1890.

Only two odes and a few fragments survive of all the great lyrics of Sappho.

When burned in 640, a.d., the Alexandrian library had 700,000 volumes.

A few scattered verses are all that remain of Ennius, the "father of Roman poetry."

Books in their present form were invented by Attalus, king of Per-gamus, in 887 B.C.

A rare edition of Bocaccio was bought by the Duke of Marlborough, in 1812, for $11,500.

The German government has paid $50,000 for a missal that belonged to Henry VIII. of England.

Sandys' "Ovid," published 1626, was the first contribution of this country to English literature.

Pastoral is the term applied to the poetry and literature that professes to depict shepherd life.

Novelists make funny blunders. Amelia B. Edwards speaks of a "Massachusetts cotton plantation."

John Ruskin, who never published a volume of poetry, so-called, is the latest poet-laureate of England.

The art of poetry is to touch the passions, says Volta, and its duty is to lead them on the side of virtue.

The term biblioklept is a euphemism which softens the ugly word book-thief, by shrouding it in Greek.

Shelley said that "poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."

With the foundation of Harvard, 1636, may be hailed the dawn of literature in what is now the United States.

A Turkish name for the nightingale is bul-bul, and it has been introduced into English poetry by Byron and Moore.

The most successful instance of a long-continued literary partnership, was that of the French novelists, Erckmann and Chatrian.

America has given to the English language its most scientific grammarian, Lindley Murray, and its greatest lexicographer, Noah Webster.

Wordsworth defined poetry as "the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression which is the countenance of all science."

It is generally conceded that our greatest literary production, up to date, is that entitled, "Declaration of Independence," 1776, by Thomas Jefferson and "others."

The term Barmecides Feast is applied to an imaginary feast which takes its name from the story of the barber's sixth brother in the "Arabian Night's Entertainment."

It is manifest, says Sir Philip Sidney, that all government of action is to be gotten by knowledge, and knowledge best, by gathering many knowledges, which is reading.

Alastor is the name of the mythical house'demon, the "skeleton in the closet," which haunts and torments a family. Shelley has a poem entitled Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude.

Chap books were small stitched tracts written in popular style and sold by the chapmen. The chap books of the seventeenth century are valuable illustrations of the manners of that time.

The first English newspaper was the English Mercury, begun in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was issued in the shape of a pamphlet. The Gazette of Venice was the original model of the modern newspaper.

Columbine is the female mask of the ltalian improvised plays, variously figuring as the attendant of Pantaloon's daughter, or, occasionally, as the daughter herself. In English pantomime plays she is the betrothed of Harlequin.

Cinque Cento is an Italian contraction for "one thousand five hundred" and a current term for the style in art and literature, which arose in Italy about or after the year 1500. It thus represents the revival of classical taste.

The so-called Aldine Editions were works from the press of Aldus Manutius, at Venice, celebrated for their binding and beautiful types. Many first editions of the Greek and Latin, as well as Italian classics, were printed by Aldus.

Denouement, a French term naturalized in this country, is applied generally to the termination or catastrophe of a play or romance; but, more strictly speaking, to the train of circumstances solving the plot and hastening the catastrophe.

The newspapers of India are published in many languages, and it is said that those in the native tongues are more widely circulated and read, in proportion to the number of copies printed, than is the case anywhere else in the world.

The oldest newspaper in the world is said to be the British Press, which was first issued in 1662 and has just celebrated its 231st birthday. Three years later the London Gazette appeared, being published at Oxford on account of the plague in London.

The troubadours were the minstrels of Southern France in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were the first to discard Latin and use the native tongue in their compositions. Their poetry was either about love and gallantry or war and chivalry.

The Capulets and Montagues were two noble families of Verona, whose feuds have been rendered familiar by Shakspeare's tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet." Dante in his "Purgatorio" (VI.) alludes to the same. The story of Romeo and Juliet forms one of Bandello's famous tales.

Saga (Icel. "a tale") is the term applied to a heroic tale among the Scandinavian nations, especially the Icelanders. The old literature of Iceland is rich in Sagas, supposed to have been committed to writing about the twelfth century. Some of the Sagas have been translated into English.