BOOK III, HISTORY OF THE UNDER SIR MUSEUM DESIDE- in yet very young, he showed a scholarly appreciation of the right methods of setting to work. He studied languages groups-giving his whole mind to one group at a time, and then passing to another. At an age when many men (far from being blockheads) are painfully striving after a literary command of their mother-tongue, young WATTS had showed himself to be master of two several clusters of the great Indo-European family, and to have a very respectable acquaintance with a third. When, as a youthful volunteer at the Museum, he was fulfilling a request made to him by Mr. BABER, that he would catalogue the Collection of Icelandic books given to the Public, half a century before, by Sir Joseph BANKS, and also another parcel of Russian books, which had been bought at his own recommendation, the reading of Chinese literature was the labour of his hours of private study, and the reading of Polish literature was the recreation of his hours of leisure. What the feelings of an ambitious student of that strain would be when officially instructed by his superior to take under his sole (or almost sole) charge the duty of examining the Museum Catalogues, and of obtaining from all parts of Europe and Asia, and from many parts of America, other catalogues of every kind, in order to ascertain the deficiencies of the Library, and to supply them, the reader can fancy. The new assistant luxuriated in his office. Many of his suggestions were periodically and earnestly supported with the Trustees by Mr. PANIZZI. His labours were appreciated and often (to my personal knowledge) warmly applauded by his superior officer. HIS LISTS OF He began with making lists of Russian books that were desiderata in the Museum Library; then of Hungarian; then of Dutch; then of French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese; then of Chinese; then of Welsh; then of the rapidly growing, but theretofore (at the Museum) much BOOK III, neglected, literature of the Americas and the Indies. I used, now and then, to watch him at his work, and to think that no man could possibly be employed more entirely to his liking. Long after I ceased to enjoy any opportunity of talking with him about his employment, I used occasionally to hear that similar tasks occupied, not infrequently, the hours of evening leisure as well as the hours of official duty. Some who knew him more intimately than—of late years-it was my privilege to know him, believe that his early death was in part (humanly speaking) due to his passion for poring over catalogues and other records of far-off literatures when worn-out nature needed to be refreshed, and to be recreatively interested in quite other occupations, During the last twenty years alone (1850-1869 inclusive) he cannot have marked and recommended for purchase less than a hundred and fifty thousand foreign works, and in order to their selection he must needs have examined almost a million of book-titles, in at least eighteen different languages. When little more than half that last-named term of years had expired he was able to write-in a Report which he addressed to Mr. PANIZZI in February, 1861-that the common object of Keeper and Assistant-Keeper had been, during almost a quarter of a century, to bring together from all quarters the useful, the elegant, and the curious literature of every language; to unite with the best English Library in England, or the world, the best Russian Library out of Russia, the best German out of Germany, the best Spanish out of Spain, and so with every language from Italian to Icelandic, from Polish to Portuguese. In five of the languages in which it now claims this species of supremacy, in Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Danish, and Swedish, I Chap. II. MUSEUM BOOK III, HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM H. ELLIS. Reports of 1861, pp. 17, 18. believe I may say that, with the exception of perhaps fifty volumes, every book that has been purchased by the Museum within the last three and twenty years has been purchased at my suggestion. I have the pleasure of reflecting that every future student of the less-known literatures of Europe will find riches where I found poverty; though, of course, the collections in all these languages together form but a small proportion of the vast accumulations that have been added to the Library during your administration and that of your successor.' When the reader comes to add to his estimate of the amount of mental labour thus briefly and modestly indicated by the man who performed it, a thought of the further toil involved in the re-arrangement and careful classification of more than four hundred thousand volumes of books, in all the literary languages of the world (without any exception), he will have attained some rough idea of the public service which was crowded into one man's life; and that, as we all have now to regret, not a protracted life. He will have, too, some degree of conception of the amount of acquired knowledge which was taken from us when Thomas WATTS was taken. To his works of industry and of learning, the man we have lost added the still better works of a kindly, benevolent heart. Many a struggling student received at his hands both wise and loving counsel, and active help. And his good deeds were not advertised. They would not now have been spoken of, but for his loss-in the very thick of his labours for the Public. In a precious volume, which was first added to the manuscript stores of the British Museum a little before * The 'successor' referred to is Mr. Winter Jones, then Keeper of Printed Books, now Principal-Librarian of the British Museum. BOOK III, Chap. II. OF THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR Mr. WATTS' death, there occurs the rough jotting of a Lord Bacon's (MS ADDIT. Note-Book B. M.). OTHER LITERARY THOMAS But these several branches of public duty, onerous as they were, were far from exhausting Mr. WATTS' mental LABOURSs or activity, either within the Museum walls or outside of WATTS. them. He was a frequent contributor to periodical literature. To his pen the Quarterly Review was indebted for an excellent article on the History of Cyclopædias; the Athenæum, for a long series of papers on various topics of literary history and of current literature, extending over many years; the various Cyclopædias and Biographical Dictionaries successively edited by Mr. Charles Knight, for a long series of valuable notices, embracing the Language and Literature of Hungary; those of Wales; and more than a hundred and thirty brief biographical memoirs, distinguished alike for careful research and for clear and vigorous expression. These biographies relate, for the most part, to foreign men of letters. To the pages of the Transactions of the Philological Society he was a frequent contributor. His Memoir on Hungarian Literature, first read to that Society, procured him the distinction of a corresponding-membership of the Hungarian Academy, and the distinction was en BOOK III, OF THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR H. ELLIS. THE MUSEUM PRINTED hanced by his being elected on the same day with Lord MACAULAY. Within the Museum itself two distinct and important departments of official labour, both of which he filled with intelligence and zeal, have yet to be indicated. In 1839, he took part-with others-in framing an extensive code BOOK CATA- of 'rules' for the re-compilation of the entire body of the In May, 1857, he took charge of the Public Reading-Room, as Chief SuperinRELATION TO tendent of the daily service. LOGUE OF 1839-1869, AND WATTS' LABOURS IN IT. Catalogues of Printed Books. It need hardly be said that the first-named task-that on the Catalogues-was a labour of planning and shaping, not one of actual execution. It was very important, however, in its effects on the public economy of the Library, and it was the one only labour, as I believe, performed by Mr. WATTS, whether severally or in conjunction with others, which failed to give unmixed satisfaction to the general body of readers. The Minutes of Evidence, taken by the Commissioners of 1848-1850, whilst they abound in expressions of public gratitude both to Mr. PANIZZI and, next after him, to Mr. WATTS, contain a not less remarkable abundance of criticisms, and of complaints, upon the plan (not the execution) of the Catalogue of Printed Books begun in 1839. The subject is a dry one, but will repay some brief attention on the reader's part. When Mr. PANIZZI became Keeper, he had (it will have been seen) to face almost instantly, and abreast, three several tasks, each of which entailed much labour upon himself, personally, as well as upon his assistants. The third of them this business of the Catalogue-proved to be not the least onerous, and it was, assuredly, not the best rewarded in the shape of its ultimate reception by those concerned more immediately in its performance. I can |