Treading the chill scagliola bedward: then A pile of brown-etched prints, two _crazie_ each, Stopped by a conch a-top from fluttering forth --Sowing the Square with works of one and the same Master, the imaginative Sienese Great in the scenic backgrounds--(name and fame None of you know, nor does he fare the worse:) From these.... Oh, with a Lionard going cheap If it should prove, as promised, that Joconde Whereof a copy contents the Louvre!--these I picked this book from. Five compeers in flank Stood left and right of it as tempting more-- A dogseared Spicilegium, the fond tale O' the Frail One of the Flower, by young Dumas, Vulgarized Horace for the use of schools, The Life, Death, Miracles of Saint Somebody, Saint Somebody Else, his Miracles, Death, and Life,-- With this, one glance at the lettered back of which, And 'Stall!' cried I: a _lira_ made it mine. Here it is, this I toss and take again; Small-quarto size, part print part manuscript: A book in shape but, really, pure crude fact Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard, And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since. Give it me back! The thing's restorative I' the touch and sight. R. BROWNING. _The Ring and the Book._ PURCHASING AN ACT OF PIETY When Providence throws a good book in my way, I bow to its decree and purchase it as an act of piety, if it is reasonably or unreasonably cheap. I _adopt_ a certain number of books every year, out of a love for the foundlings and stray children of other people's brains that nobody seems to care for. Look here. He took down a Greek Lexicon finely bound in calf, and spread it open. Do you see that Hedericus? I had Greek dictionaries enough and to spare, but I saw that noble quarto lying in the midst of an ignoble crowd of cheap books, and marked with a price which I felt to be an insult to scholarship, to the memory of Homer, sir, and the awful shade of Aeschylus, I paid the mean price asked for it, and I wanted to double it, but I suppose it would have been a foolish sacrifice of coin to sentiment. I love that book for its looks and behaviour. None of your 'half-calf' economies in that volume, sir! And see how it lies open anywhere! There isn't a book in my library that has such a generous way of laying its treasures before you. From Alpha to Omega, calm, assured rest at any page that your choice or accident may light on. No lifting of a rebellious leaf like an upstart servant that does not know his place and can never be taught manners, but tranquil, well-bred repose. A book may be a perfect gentleman in its aspect and demeanour, and this book would be good company for personages like Roger Ascham and his pupils the Lady Elizabeth and the Lady Jane Grey.--O. W. HOLMES. _The Poet at the Breakfast-Table._ A FORCED SALE