volume. But W. C. Hazlitt says of this sale,
"the Beckford books realized perfectly insane prices, and were afterwards
re-sold for a sixth or even tenth of the amount, to the serious loss of
somebody, when the barometer had fallen."

The second-hand bookseller, having the whole range of printed literature
for his field, has a great advantage in dealing with book collectors over
the average dealer, who has to offer only new books, or such as are "in
print."

It may be owned that the love of rare books is chiefly sentimental. He
who delights to spend his days or his nights in the contemplation of
black-letter volumes, quaint title-pages, fine old bindings, and curious
early illustrations, may not add to the knowledge or the happiness of
mankind, but he makes sure of his own.

The passion for rare books, merely because of their rarity, is a low
order of the taste for books. But the desire to possess and read wise old
books which have been touched by the hoar frost of time is of a higher
mood. The first impression of Paradise Lost (1667) with its quarto page
and antique orthography, is it not more redolent of the author's age than
the elegant Pickering edition, or the one illustrated by John Martin or
Gustave Dore? When you hold in your hand Shakespeare's "Midsommer Night's
Dream" (A. D. 1600) and read with fresh admiration and delight the
exquisite speeches of Oberon and Titania, may not the thought that
perhaps that very copy may once have been held in the immortal bard's own
hand send a thrill through your own?

When you turn over the classic pages of Homer illustrated by Flaxman,
that "dear sculptor of eternity," as William Blake called him, or drink
in the beauty of those delicious landscapes of Turner, that astonishing
man, who shall wonder at your desire to possess them?

The genuine book lover is he who reads books; who values them for what
they contain, not for their rarity, nor for the preposterous prices which
have been paid for them. To him, book-hunting is an ever-enduring
delight. Of all the pleasures tasted here below, that of the book lover
in finding a precious and long sought volume is one of the purest and
most innocent. In books, he becomes master of all the kingdoms of the
world.

CHAPTER 27.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

To the book collector and the Librarian, books of bibliography are the
tools of the profession. Without them he would be lost in a maze of
literature without a clue. With them, his