At the time that we gave up all hope of his recovery, we moved his bed near to his book-shelves, from which we took down, one by one, every book for which he seemed to ask with his eyes, letting him look the longest at those that we thought would please him the most. [Illustration] He died at midnight, lying between a Du Seuil and a Padeloup, his hands lovingly clasping a Thouvenin. The next day we followed his hearse, at the head of a great crowd of sorrowful morocco-finishers, and we sealed his tomb with a stone bearing the following inscription, which he had parodied for himself from Franklin’s epitaph: [Illustration: HERE LIES, IN ITS WOODEN BINDING, A FOLIO COPY OF THE BEST EDITION OF MAN, WRITTEN IN THE LANGUAGE OF A GOLDEN AGE, WHICH THE WORLD NO LONGER UNDERSTANDS. TO-DAY IT IS A SPOILED OLD BOOK, STAINED AND IMPERFECT, LACKING THE TITLE-PAGE, WORM-EATEN AND INJURED BY DECAY. WE DARE NOT ANTICIPATE FOR IT THE USELESS HONOR OF A REPRINT. ] NOTES [1] In the bibliography of Nodier’s writings, published with the catalogue of his library, Paris, 1844, the first edition of “Le Bibliomane” is registered 1832-1833, as in tome I of “Livre des Cent et un.” [2] Fermier général. An association existed in France, from the reign of Philip the Fair until the Revolution of 1789, possessing the right, by purchase, to levy taxes on various articles of consumption. These “farmers” were mostly uneducated parvenus, and their extortions were so great that though they paid no less than one hundred and eighty millions of francs for the monopoly the last year of its existence, immense fortunes were made by all concerned. The Revolution caused the abolition of the privilege, and all the “farmers” were executed. [3] “The Enemies of Books,” by William Blades. [4] During the riots of February, 1831, a mob of self-elected “public censors” attacked the palace of the Archbishop of Paris at Notre Dame, destroyed many valuable paintings, ruined the furniture, and threw a large part of the library into the Seine. [5] ANGULUS. A secret nook or corner, meaning, in this instance, the Sabine farm presented to Horace by Mæcenas, which the poet declared in his “Odes” to be all-sufficient for his needs. [6] Galliot du Pré flourished in Paris during the middle of the sixteenth century. His publications, for the most part, bear the device of a galley propelled by sails and oars, with the legend “Vogue la Gualee.”