LYSAND. By no means. I have already told you of my passion for books, and cannot, therefore, dislike bibliography. I think, with Lambinet, that the greater part of bibliographical works are sufficiently dry and soporific:[95] but I am not insensible to the utility, and even entertainment, which may result from a proper cultivation of it--although both De Bure and Peignot appear to me to have gone greatly beyond the mark, in lauding this study as "one of the most attractive and vast pursuits in which the human mind can be engaged."[96] [Footnote 95: _Recherches, &c., sur l'Origine de l'Imprimerie_: Introd. p. x. Lambinet adds very justly, "L'art consiste a les rendre supportables par des objets varies de litterature, de critique, d'anecdotes," &c.] [Footnote 96: See the "Discours sur la Science Bibliographique," &c., in the eighth volume of De Bure's _Bibl. Instruct._ and Peignot's _Dictionnaire Raisonne de Biblilolgie_, [Transcriber's Note: Bibliologie] vol. i. p. 50. The passage, in the former authority, beginning "Sans cesse"--p. xvj.--would almost warm the benumbed heart of a thorough-bred mathematician, and induce him to exchange his Euclid for De Bure!!] PHIL. But to know what books are valuable and what are worthless; their intrinsic and extrinsic merits; their rarity, beauty, and particularities of various kinds; and the estimation in which they are consequently held by knowing men--these things add a zest to the gratification we feel in even looking upon and handling certain volumes. LYSAND. It is true, my good Philemon; because knowledge upon any subject, however trivial, is more gratifying than total ignorance; and even if we could cut and string cherry-stones, like Cowper's rustic boy, it would be better than brushing them aside, without knowing that they could be converted to such a purpose. Hence I am always pleased with Le Long's reply to the caustic question of Father Malebranche, when the latter asked him, "how he could be so foolish as to take such pains about settling the date of a book, or making himself master of trivial points of philosophy!"--"Truth is so delightful," replied Le Long, "even in the most trivial matters, that we must neglect nothing to discover her." This reply, to a man who was writing, or had written, an essay upon truth was admirable. Mons. A.G. CAMUS, a good scholar, and an elegant bibliographer, [of whom you will see some account in "_Les Siecles Litteraires de la France_,"] has, I think, placed the study of bibliography in a just point of view; and to his observations, in the first volume of the "_Memoires de l'Institut National_," I must refer you.[97]