anthropists of his day who has, more
successfully than myself, traced and described the ravages of this
disease, and fortified the sufferer with the means of its cure. But,
as this is a disorder of quite a recent date, and as its
characteristics, in consequence, cannot be yet fully known or
described, great candour must be allowed to that physician who offers
a prescription for so obscure and complicated a case. It is in vain
that you search the works [ay, even the best editions] of Hippocrates
and Galen for a description of this malady; nor will you find it
hinted at in the more philosophical treatises of Sydenham and
Heberden. It had, till the medical skill of Dr. Ferriar first noticed
it to the public, escaped the observations of all our pathologists.
With a trembling hand, and fearful apprehension, therefore, I throw
out the following suggestions for the cure, or mitigatiou
[Transcriber's Note: mitigation], of this disorder:

In _the first place_, the disease of the Bibliomania is materially
softened, or rendered mild, by directing our studies to _useful and
profitable_ works--whether these be printed upon small or large paper,
in the gothic, roman, or italic type; To consider purely the
_intrinsic_ excellence, and not the exterior splendour, or
adventitious value, of any production, will keep us perhaps wholly
free from this disease. Let the midnight lamp be burnt to illuminate
the stores of antiquity--whether they be romances, or chronicles, or
legends, and whether they be printed by Aldus or by Caxton--if a
brighter lustre can thence be thrown upon the pages of modern
learning! To trace genius to its source, or to see how she has been
influenced or modified, by "the lore of past times" is both a pleasing
and profitable pursuit. To see how Shakspeare has here and there
plucked a flower, from some old ballad or popular tale, to enrich his
own unperishable garland--to follow Spenser and Milton in their
delightful labyrinths 'midst the splendour of Italian literature--are
studies which stamp a dignity upon our intellectual characters! But,
in such a pursuit let us not overlook the wisdom of modern times, nor
fancy that what is only ancient can be excellent. We must remember
that Bacon, Boyle, Locke, Taylor, Chillingworth, Robertson, Hume,
Gibbon, and Paley, are names which always command attention from the
wise, and remind us of the improved state of reason and acquired
knowledge during the two last centuries.

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