for these, he hoards his fees,--
Aldines, Bodonis, Elzevirs.

No dismal stall escapes his eye,
He turns o'er tomes of low degrees,
There soiled romanticists may lie,
Or Restoration comedies;
Each tract that flutters in the breeze
For him is charged with hopes and fears,
In mouldy novels fancy sees
Aldines, Bodonis, Elzevirs.

With restless eyes that peer and spy,
Sad eyes that heed not skies nor trees,
In dismal nooks he loves to pry,
Whose motto evermore is _Spes_!
But ah! the fabled treasure flees;
Grown rarer with the fleeting years,
In rich men's shelves they take their ease,--
Aldines, Bodonis, Elzevirs!

Prince, all the things that tease and please,--
Fame, hope, wealth, kisses, jeers and tears,
What are they but such toys as these--
Aldines, Bodonis, Elzevirs? ANDREW LANG.

* * * * *

'Tis in books the chief
Of all perfections to be plain and brief.
SAMUEL BUTLER.

Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief master-piece is writing well.
BUCKINGHAM.

Books should to one of these four ends conduce:
For wisdom, piety, delight, or use.
SIR JOHN DENHAM.

* * * * *

MY BOOKS.

Oh, happy he who, weary of the sound
Of throbbing life, can shut his study door,
Like Heinsius, on it all, to find a store
Of peace that otherwise is never found!
Such happiness is mine, when all around
My dear dumb friends in groups of three or four
Command my soul to linger on the shore
Of those fair realms where they reign monarchs crowned.
To-day the strivings of the world are naught,
For I am in a land that glows with God,
And I am in a path by angels trod.
Dost ask what book creates such heavenly thought?
Then know that I with Dante soar afar,
Till earth shrinks slowly to a tiny star.
J. WILLIAMS.

* * * * *

THOUGHTS IN A LIBRARY.

Speak low! tread softly through these halls;
Here genius lives enshrined;
Here reign in silent majesty
The monarchs of the mind.

A mighty spirit host the