ght of how many _unique_ pieces and tracts are your ardent eyes
blessed! Just so it is with AURELIUS! He also, with the three last
mentioned bibliomaniacs, keeps up a constant fire at book auctions;
although he is not personally seen in securing the spoils which he
makes. Unparalleled as an antiquary in Caledonian history and poetry,
and passionately attached to every thing connected with the fate of
the lamented Mary, as well as with that of the great poetical
contemporaries, Spenser and Shakespeare, Aurelius is indefatigable in
the pursuit of such ancient lore as may add value to the stores,
however precious, which he possesses. His _Noctes Atticae_, devoted to
the elucidation of the history of his native country, will erect to
his memory a splendid and imperishable monument. These, my dear
friends, these are the virtuous and useful, and therefore salutary
ends of book-collecting and book-reading. Such characters are among
the proudest pillars that adorn the greatest nations upon earth.

"Let me, however, not forget to mention that there are bashful or busy
bibliomaniacs, who keep aloof from book-sales, intent only upon
securing, by means of these Mercurii, _stainless_ or _large paper_
copies of ancient literature. While MENALCAS sees his oblong cabinet
decorated with such a tall, well-dressed, and perhaps matchless,
regiment of _Variorum Classics_, he has little or no occasion to
regret his unavoidable absence from the field of battle, in the Strand
or Pall Mall. And yet--although he is environed with a body guard, of
which the great Frederick's father might have envied him the
possession, he cannot help casting a wishful eye, now and then, upon
still choicer and taller troops which he sees in the territories of
his rivals. I do not know whether he would not sacrifice the whole
right wing of his army, for the securing of some magnificent treasures
in the empire of his neighbour RINALDO: for there he sees, and adores,
with the rapture-speaking eye of a classical bibliomaniac, the tall,
wide, thick, clean, brilliant, and illuminated copy of the _first
Livy_ UPON VELLUM--enshrined in an impenetrable oaken case, covered
with choice morocco!

"There he often witnesses the adoration paid to this glorious object,
by some bookish pilgrim, who, as the evening sun reposes softly upon
the hill, pushes onward, through copse, wood, moor, heath, bramble,
and thicket, to feast his eyes upon the mellow lustre of its leaves,
and up