_Read slowly,_ _Pause frequently,_ _Think seriously,_ _Return duly with the corners of the leaves not turned down._ _Neither blemish this book, nor the leaves double down,_ _Nor lend it to each idle friend in the town:_ _Return it when read,--or if lost please supply_ _Another, as good to the mind and the eye._ _With right and with reason you need but be friends_ _And each book in my study your pleasure attends._ _If through respect or love I lend_ _This book unto my worthy friend,_ _He must not soil, abuse, nor tear,_ _But read with diligence and care;_ _And when its contents you have learned,_ _Remember, it must be_ RETURNED. On the plate of _Samuel W. Francis_ appear the following lines:-- _Any one may borrow,_ _But a gentleman returns._ * * * * * _The property_ _of_ _Thomas C. Cowan._ _Borrower,_ _read, mark, and_ AVOID _the former part_ _of_ _Psalm xxxvii. 21_. * * * * * IF _you borrow, freely use it,_ _Take great care and don’t abuse it:_ _Read, but neither lose nor lend it,_ _Then unto the owner send it_. _Never open a book farther than to bring both sides of the cover on to the same plane. Never lend a borrowed book, but return it as soon as you are through with it, so that the owner may not be deprived of its use. You may think this a strange request, but I find that although many of my friends are poor arithmeticians, they are nearly all of them good book-keepers._ [Illustration: TIMOTHY MANN.] In strong contrast to all the preceding are those mottoes of generous souls who find no pleasure in withholding their treasures, but who wish to have it understood that they are for the use of all; not very many are bold enough to thus advertise their willingness to lend, but a few do so, and generally by the use of the Latin, _Sibi et amicis_, or _et amicorum_. Sentiments in praise of books and reading are not uncommon, and quotations from classic writers both in prose and poetry do good service on book-plates. Pope’s well-known lines-- _A little learning is a dangerous thing,_ _Drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring;_ _Where shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,_ _But drinking largely sobers us again._ are found on an old American plate. On a recent New York plate,-- _Far more seemly were it for thee to have thy Study full of Books than thy purse full of money. Lilly._ On a Maine plate,-- _Who learns and learns but does not what he learns,_ _Is one who plows and plows but never sows._ * * * * * _Weigh well each thought, each sentence freely scan,_ _In Reason’s balance try the works of man._ _Be bias’d not by those who praise or blame,_ _Nor, Servile, Yield opinion to a name._ On a recent Boston plate,--