hese
_Pepysian gems_, in the exultation of my friend, the author,
over another equally respected friend--in consequence of his
having discovered, among these treasures, a strange, merry,
and conceited work, entitled "_Old Meg of Herefordshire for
a Mayd-Marian; and Hereford Town for a Morris-daunce, &c._,"
1609, 4to., p. 273. EX UNO DISCE OMNES. The left-handed
critic, or anti-black-letter reader, will put a wicked
construction upon the quotation of this motto in capital
letters: let him: he will repent of his folly in due time.]

Now it was a convincing proof to me, my dear friends, that the
indulgence of a PASSION FOR BOOKS is perfectly compatible with any
situation, however active and arduous. For while this illustrious
bibliomaniac was sending forth his messengers to sweep every
bookseller's shop from the Tweed to Penzance, for the discovery of old
and almost unknown ballads--and while his name rung in the ears of
rival collectors--he was sedulous, in his professional situation, to
put the _Navy of Old England_ upon the most respectable footing; and
is called the _Father_ of that system which, carried into effect by
British hearts of oak, has made the thunder of our cannon to be heard
and feared on the remotest shores. Nor is it a slight or common
coincidence that a spirit of book-collecting, which stimulated the
_Secretary_ of the Admiralty at the opening of the 18th century,
should, at the close of it, have operated with equal or greater force
in a _First Lord_ of the same glorious department of our
administration. But we shall speak more fully of this latter
character, and of his matchless collection, in a future stage of our
discussion.

While we are looking round us at this period, we may as well slightly
notice the foundation of the _Blenheim Library_. The DUKE OF
MARLBOROUGH[365] was resolved that no naval commander, or person
connected with the navy, should eclipse himself in the splendour of
book-collecting: but it was to PRINCE EUGENE that Marlborough was
indebted for his taste in this particular; or rather the English
commander was completely bitten with the bibliomaniacal disease in
consequence of seeing Eugene secure rare and magnificent copies of
works, when a city or town was taken: and the German Prince himself
expatiates upon the treasures of his library, with a rapture with
which none but the most thorough-bred bibliomaniacs can ever
adequately sympa