e Orlando, after a pause of
fifteen seconds, "in a short time I must bid adieu to this scene; to
my choice copies; beautiful bindings: and all the classical furniture
which you behold around you. Yes!--as Reimannus[173] has well
observed,--'there is no end to accumulating books, whilst the
boundaries of human existence are limited, indeed!' But I have made
every necessary, and, I hope, appropriate, regulation; the greater
part of my library is bequeathed to one of the colleges in the
University of Oxford; with an injunction to put an inscription over
the collection very different from what the famous Ranzau[174]
directed to be inscribed over his own.--About three hundred volumes
you will find bequeathed to you, dear Philemon--accompanied with a few
remarks not very different from what Lotichius[175] indited, with his
dying breath, in his book-legacy to the learned Sambucus. I will, at
present, say no more. Come and see me whenever you have an
opportunity. I exact nothing extraordinary of you; and shall therefore
expect nothing beyond what one man of sense and of virtue, in our
relative situations, would pay to the other."

[Footnote 173: "Vita brevis est, et series librorum longa."
He adds: "Aes magnum tempus, quo id dispungere conatus est,
parvum." _Bibl. Acroamat._, p. 51, sign. d [dagger symbol]
2.]

[Footnote 174: "Henry de Ranzau--avoit dresse une excellente
bibliotheque au chateau de Bredemberg, dans laquelle
estoient conservez plusieurs manuscrits Grecs et Latins, et
autres raretez, &c.--Ce scavant personnage a fait un decret
pour sa bibliotheque, qui merite d'estre icy insere, pour
faire voir a la posterite l'affection qu'il auoit pour sa
conservation."

... Libros partem ne aliquam abstulerit,
Extraxerit, clepserit, rapserit,
Concerpserit, coruperit,
Dolo malo:
Illico maledictus,
Perpetuo execrabilis,
Semper detestabilis
Esto maneto.

JACOB: _Traicte des Bibliotheques_, pp. 237, 240.

I have inserted only the fulminatory clause of this
inscription, as being that part of it against which
Orlando's indignation seems to be directed.]

[Footnote 175: "Petrus Lotichius Johanni Sambuco Pannonio
gravissimo morbo laborans Bononiae, bibliothecam suam
legaverit, _lib._ 3, _eleg._ 9, verba ejus lectu non