wammerdam or Puffendorf into a good rousing fire, and mark the result.

No--it is probable that, stored away in some forgotten repositories,
these miscellaneous relics still remain; and should they be brought
forth, some excitement might be created; for, ignorant as the monster
was, he had an instinct for knowing what other people wanted, and was
thus enabled to snatch rare and curious volumes from the grasp of
systematic collectors. It was his great glory to get hold of a unique
book and shut it up. There were known to be just two copies of a spare
quarto called Rout upon Rout, or the Rabblers Rabbled, by Felix Nixon,
Gent. He possessed one copy; the other, by indomitable perseverance, he
also got hold of, and then his heart was glad within him; and he felt it
glow with well-merited pride when an accomplished scholar, desiring to
complete an epoch in literary history on which that book threw some
light, besought the owner to allow him a sight of it, were it but for a
few minutes, and the request was refused. "I might as well ask him,"
said the animal, who was rather proud of his firmness than ashamed of
his churlishness, "to make me a present of his brains and reputation."

It was among his pleasant ways to attend book-sales, there to watch the
biddings of persons on whose judgment he relied, and cut in as the
contest was becoming critical. This practice soon betrayed to those he
had so provoked the chinks in the monster's armour. He was assailable
and punishable at last, then, this potent tyrant--but the attack must be
made warily and cautiously. Accordingly, impartial bystanders, ignorant
of the plot, began to observe that he was degenerating by degrees in the
rank of his purchases, and at last becoming utterly reckless, buying, at
the prices of the sublimest rarities, common works of ordinary
literature to be found in every book-shop. Such was the result of
judiciously drawing him on, by biddings for valueless books, on the part
of those whom he had outbid in the objects of their desire. Auctioneers
were surprised at the gradual change coming over the book-market, and a
few fortunate people obtained considerable prices for articles they were
told to expect nothing for. But this farce, of course, did not last
long; and whether or not he found out that he had been beaten at his own
weapons, the devouring monster disappeared as mysteriously as he had
come.

Reminiscences.

Such incidents bring vividly before