With this part of connoisseurship we propose to deal in another chapter at the end of this work. At present we would state that the safest thing for an art and curio collector to do, whatever his ambition, is to become acquainted with the various ways of the peculiar _milieu_ into which he is about to enter, to train his eye as much as possible, to be diffident at first and to have a passionate love for his interesting pursuit. It will then be for the collector a source of no common enjoyment and a most pleasing occupation, an occupation somewhat justifying the following lyricism of Schlegel: “There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality than the adoration of the beautiful. “All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste without respect to the object. “They purify the thoughts as tragedy purifies the passions. Their accidental effects are not worth consideration; there are souls to whom even a vestal body is not holy.” As the reverse to the ideal side let us warn the neophyte that the supreme joy of art-hunting is often embittered by the jealousy of colleagues, and that benevolence in the environment in which the collector moves is as rare as the ceramics of Henry II and the painting of Michelangelo; so much so that Edmond Bonnaffé was fully justified in re-editing an old Latin saying into:-- “_Homo homini lupus, fæmina fæminæ lupior, curiosus curioso lupissimus_” (A man against man is like a wolf, woman against woman still more so, but most of all is curio-hunter against curio-hunter.) CHAPTER XIV THE COLLECTOR’S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES Curio-trading--The collector’s friends, semi-friends and enemies --The antiquary, the so-called private dealer, the dealer, bric-à-brac vendor and others of the species--Art critics and experts--_Courtiers_ and other go-betweens. Madame Rolland writes in her famous _Memoirs_ that one of her greatest objections to a certain suitor was the fact that he was a trader. “In commerce,” said this brilliant victim of the French Revolution, “one is supposed to buy at a low figure and sell at an exaggerated price, a scheme usually demanding the aid of lies.” Leaving with Mme Rolland the responsibility of such an assertion, it is quite safe to say that the trade in antiques, the flourishing commerce in curios, is a trade, if ever there was one, in which objects are bought cheap and sold at a high price, with a stock of lies as a necessary asset. Naturally the statement does not imply that every dealer is a confirmed liar, ready to take advantage of the incautious and unskilled novice through misrepresentation. Yet even at its best the character of the trade in our day is such that it is difficult to score success without--what shall we say?--flavouring opportunity with fantastic tales, without firing the client’s enthusiasm with some form of mirage, namely, tricking his good faith to entice him within the orbit of--faith.