David Garrick (whose book-plate is figured opposite) selected as an appropriate quotation for his book-plate the following, taken from the fourth volume of _Menagiana_:--'La première chose qu'on doit faire quand on a emprunté un livre, c'est de le lire afin de pouvoir le rendre plutôt.' Very good advice, no doubt; but I wonder if 'Davy' was careful enough to confine his loans to those who would follow it? This reminds me of a very nicely put passage of Lord De Tabley's, _à propos_ of the subject of book-borrowing in general:-- [Illustration] 'Now this batch of mottoes raises the point, whether valuable books should be lent to persons who treat volumes like coal scuttles; who perpetrate such atrocities as moistening their thumbs to turn a page over; who hold a fine binding before a roaring fire? who, _horribile dictu_, read at breakfast, and use, as a book-marker, the butter-knife. Ought Garrick to have lent the cream of his Shakespeare quartos to slovenly and mole-eyed Samuel Johnson? We think emphatically not! Many full-grown folks have no more idea of handling a book than has a school-boy.' So far the 'caveats' on book-plates have been either original compositions or quotations, specially selected by the owner; but, as time went on, people did not trouble to compose their own verses or inscriptions, or to hunt up appropriate quotations. The same lines or words appear fastened beneath, or printed upon, the book-plates of many different persons; in the latter case the book-plate is generally little more than a name ticket. Here is one, composed early in this century, which could be bought of C. Talbot, at 174 Tooley Street, and on it the purchaser could write his name before affixing it in his volumes:-- 'THIS BOOK BELONGS TO . . . . . . . . If thou art borrowed by a friend, Right welcome shall he be To read, to study, not to lend, But to return to me. Not that imparted knowledge doth Diminish learning's store; But Books, I find, if often lent, Return to me no more. Read slowly, Pause frequently, Think seriously, Keep cleanly, return duly, With the corners of the leaves not turned down.' Of about the same date is another little effusion, which clearly does not contemplate the purchaser being the possessor of a _unique_ volume, or of one for any cause irreplaceable, if lost:-- 'THIS BOOK BELONGS TO . . . . . . . . . . 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.'