ment than buying them through catalogues. You thus come
upon the most unexpected volumes unawares. You open the covers, scan the
title-pages, get a glimpse of the plates, and flit from book to book,
like a bee gathering honey for its hive. It is a good way to recruit your
library economically, to run through the stock of a book-dealer
systematically--neglecting no shelf, but selecting throughout the whole
stock, and laying aside what you think you may want. When this is done,
you will have quite a pile of literature upon which to negotiate with the
proprietor. It is cheaper to buy thus at wholesale than by piecemeal,
because the bookseller will make you a larger discount on a round lot of
which you relieve his shelves.

Another method of recruiting your library is the examination of books "on
approval." Most book-dealers will be so obliging as to send in parcels of
books for the inspection of a librarian or collector, who can thus
examine them leisurely and with more thoroughness than in a book store,
without leaving his business.

All books, by whatever course they may be purchased, are indispensably
to be collated before they are accepted and paid for. Neglect of this
will fill any library with imperfections, since second-hand books are
liable to have missing leaves, or plates, or maps, while new books may
lack signatures or plates, or be wrongly bound together. In the case of
new books, or books still in print, the publisher is bound to make good
an imperfection.

In old books, this is usually impossible, and the only remedy is to
return the imperfect books upon the seller's hands, unless there may be a
reason, such as the rarity of the volume, or its comparative little cost,
or the trifling nature of the imperfection, for retaining it. The
equities in these cases are in favor of the buyer, who is presumed to
have purchased a perfect copy. But the right of reclamation must be
exercised promptly, or it may be forfeited by lapse of time. If an
imperfection in any book you order is noted in the catalogue, it is not
subject to return. I have ever found the book auctioneers most courteous
and considerate in their dealings--and the same can be said of the book
trade generally, among whom instances of liberality to libraries are by
no means rare.

One of the choicest pleasures of the book collector, whether private
student or librarian, is to visit the second-hand book-shops of any city,
and examine the stock with care.