other secrets, well known to the intelligent curious, who are versed in affairs relating to books. Many first editions are not to be purchased for the treble value of later ones. The collector we have noticed frequently said, as is related of Virgil, "I collect gold from Ennius's dung." I find, in some neglected authors, particular things, not elsewhere to be found. He read many of these, but not with equal attention--"_Sicut canis ad Nilum, bibens et fugiens_;" like a dog at the Nile, drinking and running. Fortunate are those who only consider a book for the utility and pleasure they may derive from its possession. Students, who know much, and still thirst to know more, may require this vast sea of books; yet in that sea they may suffer many shipwrecks. Great collections of books are subject to certain accidents besides the damp, the worms, and the rats; one not less common is that of the _borrowers_, not to say a word of the _purloiners_! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 10: An allusion and pun which occasioned the French translator of the present work an unlucky blunder: puzzled, no doubt, by my _facetiously_, he translates "mettant, comme on l'a _trés-judicieusement_ fait observer, l'entendement humain sous la clef." The great work and the great author alluded to, having quite escaped him!] [Footnote 11: The earliest satire on the mere book-collector is to be found in Barclay's translation of Brandt's "Ship of Fools," first printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1508. He thus announces his true position:-- I am the first fool of the whole navie To keepe the poupe, the helme, and eke the sayle: For this is my minde, this one pleasure have I, Of bookes to have greate plentie and apparayle. Still I am busy bookes assembling, For to have plenty it is a pleasaunt thing In my conceyt, and to have them aye in hande: But what they meane do I not understande. But yet I have them in great reverence And honoure, saving them from filth and ordare, By often brushing and much diligence; Full goodly bound in pleasaunt coverture, Of damas, satten, or else of velvet pure: I keepe them sure, fearing least they should be lost, For in them is the cunning wherein I me boast.]