96]

[Footnote 95: _Recherches, &c., sur l'Origine de
l'Imprimerie_: Introd. p. x. Lambinet adds very justly,
"L'art consiste a les rendre supportables par des objets
varies de litterature, de critique, d'anecdotes," &c.]

[Footnote 96: See the "Discours sur la Science
Bibliographique," &c., in the eighth volume of De Bure's
_Bibl. Instruct._ and Peignot's _Dictionnaire Raisonne de
Biblilolgie_, [Transcriber's Note: Bibliologie] vol. i. p.
50. The passage, in the former authority, beginning "Sans
cesse"--p. xvj.--would almost warm the benumbed heart of a
thorough-bred mathematician, and induce him to exchange his
Euclid for De Bure!!]

PHIL. But to know what books are valuable and what are worthless;
their intrinsic and extrinsic merits; their rarity, beauty, and
particularities of various kinds; and the estimation in which they are
consequently held by knowing men--these things add a zest to the
gratification we feel in even looking upon and handling certain
volumes.

LYSAND. It is true, my good Philemon; because knowledge upon any
subject, however trivial, is more gratifying than total ignorance; and
even if we could cut and string cherry-stones, like Cowper's rustic
boy, it would be better than brushing them aside, without knowing that
they could be converted to such a purpose. Hence I am always pleased
with Le Long's reply to the caustic question of Father Malebranche,
when the latter asked him, "how he could be so foolish as to take such
pains about settling the date of a book, or making himself master of
trivial points of philosophy!"--"Truth is so delightful," replied Le
Long, "even in the most trivial matters, that we must neglect nothing
to discover her." This reply, to a man who was writing, or had
written, an essay upon truth was admirable. Mons. A.G. CAMUS, a good
scholar, and an elegant bibliographer, [of whom you will see some
account in "_Les Siecles Litteraires de la France_,"] has, I think,
placed the study of bibliography in a just point of view; and to his
observations, in the first volume of the "_Memoires de l'Institut
National_," I must refer you.[97]

[Footnote 97: Lysander had probably the following passage
more particularly in recollection; which, it must be
confessed, bears sufficiently hard upon fanciful and
ostentatious collectors of books. "[Il y a] deux sortes de
connoissance des livres: l'une qui s