cards, Angling, Tobacco: Bewick, Bartolozzi:
Tokens, Coins and Medals, and Americana--Tracts relating to
Popery--The Printing Clubs and Societies--Errors in books of
reference liable to perpetuation--Heads of advice to collectors
of books with supplements, extra leaves, &c.

THE two principal aids to the formation of a library, great or small,
general or special, are Personal Observation and Works of Reference.
The first is obviously an uncertain quantity, and may be restricted to
an ordinary mechanical experience, or may comprise the finest
commercial and literary instinct. We have had among us ere now
amateurs who possessed the highest qualifications for assembling round
them gratifying and valuable monuments of their taste and judgment,
with the harmless satisfaction of feeling tolerably sure that the
investment, if not a source of profit, would not form one of serious
loss. This is a fair and legitimate demand and expectation; but such
characters are far rarer than the books which they collect; and if it
were otherwise, the large industry which lies in the purchase and
re-sale of literary property could not exist. The buyer whose
knowledge is in advance of that of the salesman is a party whom Mr.
---- and Mr. ---- and the remainder of the alphabet pharisaically
admire, while they privily harbour toward him sadly unchristian
feelings and views.

The second and remaining auxiliary, the Book of Reference, has become
a wide term, since it has so enormously developed itself, and formed
branches, so as to constitute a library within a library, and to call
for its own bibliographer. So far as the current value and general
character of literary works are concerned, all the older authorities
are more or less untrustworthy, and the same is to be predicated of a
heavy proportion of auctioneers' and booksellers' catalogues, where
the first and sole object is to realise the maximum price for an
article. The system pursued by the former class of vendors of late
years renders it far more hazardous to bid on the faith of the printed
descriptions, and there is, in fact, greater danger for the novice in
the elaborate rehearsal of the title and the accompanying fillip in
the shape of a note (usually erroneous) than the good old-fashioned
plan of setting out the particulars briefly--even illiterately; for in
the latter case the burden of discovering the exact truth is thrown on
the customer or acquirer. We must