Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/303

263 CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL. 263 Mr. Knight himself ; but the series soon became the " shilling volumes." The Penny Magazine terminated on the 2/th Dec., 1845, and its continuation, Knight's Penny Magazine, proving but barely remunerative, the hint was taken, Mr. Knight declaring that it should never be said of him, " Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage." The "Penny Encyclopaedia" terminated in December, 1843, and though a ruinous loss to Mr. Charles Knight, was at the same time, as regards the general public, perhaps the greatest publishing triumph that had yet been accomplished. The banquet given in his honour by the contributors was, Mr. Knight tells us, the proudest moment in his life, and was certainly a tribute as well earned^as it was unique. Into the next and grandest venture of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Mr. Knight could not afford to take part fortunately, indeed, for the scheme, magnificent but futile, proved a death- blow to the Society. The " New Biographical Dic- tionary " was intended to assume proportions beyond anything of the kind hitherto attempted ; but to the astonishment of the committee it was found that when the letter A was completed seven half volumes had been filled, and a loss of 5000 had been incurred. This was bad enough, but when contributors were requested to send in suggestions as to the letter B, one man alone forwarded more than 2000 names. By this time the Society had exhausted its available funds, and, frightened by the prospect, thought itself quite justified in retiring from the public scene. " Its work is done, for its greatest object is achieved fully, fairly, and permanently. The public^is supplied with cheap and good literature to an extent which the most