persons who engage in this attractive pursuit are:--

(i) Pure amateurs, without any eye to the financial question.
(ii) Specialists of more than a single kind.
(iii) Students.
(iv) Speculators.
(v) Miscellaneous or casual buyers.

The normal amateur starts, in general, without any well-defined scheme
before him. He has seen in the hands of a friend, perhaps, a curious
book; and the notion takes possession of him, rather stealthily, yet
rather languidly too, that it might be a "nice" thing to have
oneself--that or such another. The spirit of collecting, like a
delicate germ, is at first easily extinguished; but an incident as
trivial and fortuitous as the one just suggested has ere now
constituted the _nucleus_ and starting-point of a large library. It
may, indeed, be a favourable symptom and augury when a man begins
circumspectly and deliberately; he is more apt, other circumstances
favouring, to prosecute his scheme to the end, and to prove a valuable
friend to the trade.

We have mentioned that the Specialist may be of more than one sort. He
may, in short, be of ten thousand sorts; and the Student, after all,
may be bracketed with him; for both equally devote their exclusive
attention to a prescribed class of works or branch of inquiry for a
more or less definite term.

The subjects which principally engage the notice of specialists are:--

Ancient Typography (including Xylographic works).
English, Scotish, and Irish History.
English Topography.
English Genealogy and Family History.
Liturgies and Prayer-Books.
Books of Hours.
Bibles.
Roman Catholic books.
English books printed abroad.
Voyages and Travels.
Irish Literature.
Scotish Literature.
Early illustrated books.
Modern illustrated books.
French illustrated books.
Books of Emblems.
Books of Engravings.
Early English Poetry.
Early Romances.
Early Music.
Spanish Romances.
Italian Romances.
Dantesque Literature.
Cromwell Literature.
Civil War and Commonwealth tracts.
Editions of the _Imitatio Christi_.
Editions of the _Pilgrim's Progress_.
Occult Literature.
Folk-lore.
Tobacco.
Educational books.
Caricatures in book form.
Miracles and phenomena.
Broadsides.
Chap-books.

There is probably not much of consequence to be suggested outside this
calendar from which an intending collector may make his choice. Each
of the topics indicated is, for the most part, susceptible of being
subdivided and subdivided again.

_Ancient Typography_