ive subjectum inspicias, dignam invenies quae omnium teratur
manibus, quamque adolescentes nocturna versentque manu, versentque
diurna."[27] It will be observed that he does not hesitate to dwell on
this poem as "most elegant and most useful," and by its style and
subject worthy of the daily and nightly study of youth. In his verses
Ross announces that Alexander was not less fortunate in his poet than
the Greek chieftain in Homer:--

"Si felix praecone fuit dux Graecus Homero,
Felix nonne tuo est carmine dux Macedo?"

There was also another edition planned in France, during the latter part
of the last century, by M. Daire, the librarian of the Celestines in
Paris, founded on the Latin text, according to the various manuscripts,
with a French translation; but this never appeared.[28]

Until the late appearance of an edition in Germany, it was only in
editions shortly after the invention of printing that this poem could be
found. Of course these are rare. The British Museum, in its immense
treasure-house, has the most important, one of which belonged to the
invaluable legacy of the late Mr. Grenville. The copy in the library of
Lord Spencer is the Lyons edition of 1558. By a singular fortune, this
volume was missing some time ago from its place on the shelves; but it
has since been found; and I have now before me a tracing from its
title-page. My own copy--and perhaps the only one this side of the
Atlantic--is the Ingolstadt edition. It once belonged to John Mitford,
and has on the fly-leaves some notes in the autograph of this honored
lover of books.

Bibliography dwells with delight upon this poem, although latterly the
interest centres in a single line. Brunet does full justice to it. So
does his jealous rival, Graesse, except where he blunders. Watt, in his
"Bibliotheca Britannica," mentions only the Lyons edition of 1558, on
which he remarks, that "the typography is very singular." Clarke, in his
"Repertorium Bibliographicum," bearing date 1819, where he gives an
account of the most celebrated British libraries, mentions a copy of the
first edition in the library of Mr. Steevens, who showed his knowledge
of the poem in his notes to Shakspeare;[29] also a copy of the Lyons
edition of 1558 in the library of the Marquis of Blandford, afterwards
Duke of Marlborough. This learned bibliographer has a note calling
attention to the fact that "there are variations in the famous disputed
line in different editions