ficial
account of a disease, which, till it arrested the attention of Dr.
Ferriar, had entirely escaped the sagacity of all ancient and modern
physicians, it has been my object to touch chiefly on its leading
characteristics; and to present the reader (in the language of my old
friend Francis Quarles) with an "honest pennyworth" of information,
which may, in the end, either suppress or soften the ravages of so
destructive a malady. I might easily have swelled the size of this
treatise by the introduction of much additional, and not incurious,
matter; but I thought it most prudent to wait the issue of the present
"recipe," at once simple in its composition and gentle in its
effects._

_Some apology is due to the amiable and accomplished character to whom
my epistle is addressed, as well as to the public, for the apparently
confused and indigested manner in which the notes are attached to the
first part of this treatise; but, unless I had thrown them to the end
(a plan which modern custom does not seem to warrant), it will be
obvious that a different arrangement could not have been adopted; and
equally so that the perusal, first of the text, and afterwards of the
notes, will be the better mode of passing judgment upon both._

T.F.D.

_Kensington, June_ 5, 1809.

[Illustration]

TO THE READER.

_A short time after the publication of the first edition of this work,
a very worthy and shrewd Bibliomaniac, accidentally meeting me,
exclaimed that "the book_ would do, _but that there was not_ gall
_enough in it." As he was himself a_ Book-Auction-loving Bibliomaniac,
_I was resolved, in a future edition, to gratify him and similar
Collectors by writing_ PART III. _of the present impression; the motto
of which may probably meet their approbation._

_It will be evident, on a slight inspection of the present edition,
that it is so much altered and enlarged as to assume the character of
a new_ work. _This has not been done without mature reflection; and a
long-cherished hope of making it permanently useful to a large class
of General Readers, as well as to Book-Collectors and Bibliographers._

_It appeared to me that notices of such truly valuable, and oftentimes
curious and rare, books, as the ensuing pages describe; but more
especially a_ Personal History of Literature, _in the characters of_
Collectors of Books; _had long been a desideratum even with classical
students: and in adopting the present form of publi