would have been entirely lost to the world.

There are among bibliographers many highly meritorious leaders through
the mysteries of occult literature--as, for instance, those who, like
Placcius, Mylius, Barbiere, and Melzi, have devoted themselves to the
discovery and publication of the authorship of anonymous works. Their
function is, on the whole, a rather cruel one, and suggests that those
who betake themselves to it are men of austere character. Sometimes, to
be sure, it falls to their lot to place the laurel wreath of fame on the
deserving brow, but very seldom before the grave has closed over it. The
resuscitation of books which have passed unnoticed because they were
beyond their age, or failed to touch its sympathies, has been the class
of instances in which honour has been thus conferred; and it has seldom
fallen to the lot of the living, for the reason that it is the nature of
the human being not very resolutely to conceal from an inquiring public
those of his actions which receive the approval of his own conscience
and taste. In dealing with the living, and often the recently departed,
it is the function of this class of investigators to expose the
weaknesses and inconsistencies of the wise and great. It is they who
have told the world about the youthful Jacobitism of the eminent pillar
of the constitution; of the early Radicalism of the distinguished
Conservative; of the more than questionable escapades of the popular,
yet sedate divine, whose works are the supreme model of decorous piety.
In this wise, indeed, the function of the bibliographer of the anonymous
much resembles the detective's. Like that functionary, he must not let
feelings of delicacy or humanity interfere with the relentless execution
of his duty, for of those who have achieved eminence as public teachers,
all that they have ever told the world is the world's property. Whatever
mercy may be shown to the history of their private life, cannot be
claimed for the sayings which they have made or tried to make public. If
they have at other times uttered opinions different from those which
have achieved for them fame and eminence, those early utterances are an
effective test of the value and sincerity of the later, and were it for
this object only, the world is entitled to look at them. This is one of
the penalties which can only be escaped by turning aside from the path
to eminence.[64]

[Footnote 64: It will be agreeable news to the severely d