lief to grow into
decay and disuse;" which was "a great cause that there were
so many vagabonds, beggars, and thieves;"--_Fourth
Institute_; p. 91, edit. 1669. So that the author of an
ancient, and now rarely perused work had just reason, in
describing the friars of his time as "living in common upon
the goods of a monastery, either gotten by common labour, or
else upon lands and possessions where with the monastery was
endowed." _Pype or Tonne of the Lyfe of Perfection_; fol.
clxxii., rev. 1532, 4to. And yet, should the active
bibliomaniac be disposed to peruse this work, after
purchasing Mr. Triphook's elegant copy of the same, he might
probably not think very highly of the author's good sense,
when he found him gravely telling us that "the appetite of
clean, sweet, and fair, or fine cloaths, and oft-washing and
curious _pykyng_ of the body, is an enemy of chastity," fol.
ccxxix. rect. The DEVASTATION OF BOOKS was, I fear,
sufficiently frightful to warrant the following writers in
their respective conclusions. "A judicious author (says
Ashmole) speaking of the dissolution of our monasteries,
saith thus: Many manuscripts, guilty of no other
superstition then (having) _red letters_ in the front, were
condemned to the fire: and here a principal key of antiquity
was lost, to the great prejudice of posterity. Indeed (such
was learning's misfortune, at that great devastation of our
English libraries, that) where a _red letter_ or a
mathematical diagram appeared, they were sufficient to
entitle the book to be popish or diabolical." _Theatrum
Chemicum_; prolegom. A. 2. rev. "The avarice of the late
intruders was so mean, and their ignorance so
undistinguishing, that, when the books happened to have
COSTLY COVERS, they tore them off, and threw away the works,
or turned them to the vilest purposes." _Life of Reginald
Pole_; vol. i., p. 253-4, edit. 1767, 8vo. The author of
this last quotation then slightly notices what Bale has said
upon these book-devastations; and which I here subjoin at
full length; from my first edition of this work:--"Never
(says Bale) had we been offended for the loss of our
LIBRARIES, being so many in number, and in so desolate
places for the more part, if the chief monuments and most
notable works of our