ame animadversions may be found in a
useful book printed nearly two centuries before: "Non enim
cogitant quales ipsi, sed qualibus induti vestibus sint, et
quanta pompa rerum fortunaeque praefulgeant--sunt enim omnino
ridiculi, qui in nuda librorum quantumvis selectissimorum
multitudine gloriantur, et inde doctos sese atque admirandos
esse persuadent." Draudius: _Bibliotheca Classica_, ed.
1611. Epist. ad. Lect. Spizelius has also a good passage
upon the subject, in his description of Book-Gluttons
("Helluones Librorum"): "cum immensa pene librorum sit
multitudo et varietas, fieri non potest, quin eorum opibus
ditescere desiderans (haeres), non assiduam longamque
lectionem adhibeat." _Infelix Literatus_, p. 296, edit.
1680, 8vo.]

PHIL. I may want time, and probably inclination, to read these
observations: and, at any rate, I should be better pleased with your
analysis of them.

LYSAND. That would lead me into a wide field indeed; and, besides, our
friend--who I see walking hastily up the garden--is impatient for his
breakfast; 'tis better, therefore, that we satisfy just now an
appetite of a different kind.

PHIL. But you promise to renew the subject afterwards?

LYSAND. I will make no such promise. If our facetious friend LISARDO,
who is expected shortly to join us, should happen to direct our
attention and the discourse to the sale of MALVOLIO'S busts and
statues, what favourable opportunity do you suppose could present
itself for handling so unpromising a subject as bibliography?

PHIL. Well, well, let us hope he will not come: or, if he does, let us
take care to carry the point by a majority of votes. I hear the gate
bell ring: 'tis Lisardo, surely!

Three minutes afterwards, Lisardo and myself, who met in the passage
from opposite doors, entered the Cabinet. Mutual greetings succeeded:
and, after a hearty breakfast, the conversation was more
systematically renewed.

LIS. I am quite anxious to give you a description of the fine things
which were sold at Malvolio's mansion yesterday! Amongst colossal
Minervas, and pigmy fauns and satyrs, a magnificent set of books, in
ten or twelve folio volumes (I forget the precise number) in Morocco
binding, was to be disposed of.

LYSAND. The Clementine and Florentine museums?

LIS. No indeed--a much less interesting work. A catalogue of the
manuscripts and printed books in the library of the French ki