"Aspice _Pierrot_ pendu, Quota librum n'a pas rendu!" Poor Pierrot is exhibited in a state of suspension, as hanging from the inverted letter L ([Gamma]), which symbolises the fatal tree. Comminatory and exhortatory cautions not to soil, spoil, or tear books and MSS. occur so frequently in the records of monastic libraries, that a whole album could easily be filled with them. The coquettish bishop, Venantius Fortunatus, has a distich on the subject. Another learned Goth, Theud-wulf, or Theodulfus, Charlemagne's _Missus dominicus_, {473} recommends readers a proper ablution of their hands before turning the consecrated leaves: "Utere me, lector, mentisque in sede locato; Cumque librum petis hinc, sit tibi _lota_ manus!"--_Saith Library._ Less lenient are the imprecations commemorated by Don Martenne and Wanley. The one inscribed on the blank leaf of a Sacramentary of the ninth century is to the following effect: "Si quis eum (librum) de monasterio aliquo ingenio non redditurus, abstraxerit, cum Juda proditore, Anna et Caipha, portionem aeternae damnationis accipiat. Amen! Amen! Fiat! fiat!"--_Voyage Litteraire_, p. 67. That is fierce and fiery, and in very earnest. A MS. of the Bodleian bears this other inscription, to the same import: "Liber Sanctae Mariae de Ponte Roberti. Qui eum abstulerit aut vendiderit ... aut quamlibet ejus partem absciderit, sit anathema maranatha." Canisius, in his _Antiquae Lectiones_ (I. ii. p. 3. 320.), transcribes another comminatory distich, copied from a MS. of the Saint Gall library: "Auferat hunc librum _nullus hinc_, omne per aevum, Cum Gallo partem quisquis habere cupit!" Such recommendations are now no longer in use, and seem rather excessive. But whoever has witnessed the extreme carelessness, not to say improbity, of some of the readers admitted into the public continental libraries, who scruple not to soil, spoil, and even purloin the most precious and rare volumes, feels easily reconciled to the _anathema maranatha_ of the ninth and tenth centuries. P.S.--Excuse my French-English. PHILARETE CHASLES, Mazarinaeus. Paris, Palais de l'Institut. * * * * * LIVERIES WORN, AND MENIAL SERVICES PERFORMED, BY GENTLEMEN. (Vol. vi., p. 146.) However remarkable the conduct of the rustic esquire of Downham may appear in the present duly, when he accepted and wore the livery of his neighbour the Knight-Baronet of Houghton Tower, it was a Common practice for gentlemen of good birth and estate to accept and wear, and even to assume without solicitation, upon state occasions, the livery of an influential neighbour, friend, or relation, in testimony of respect and affection for the giver of the livery.