lue others:
all which requires no small judgment and experience.

"Let us suppose, then, the founder possessed of all those qualifications,
three things fall next under consideration.

"First, the number of books; secondly, their quality; and, lastly, the
order in which they ought to be ranged.

"As to the quantity, regard must be had, as well to places as to persons;
for should a man of moderate fortune propose to have a Library for his own
use only, it would be imprudent in him to embarrass his affairs in order
to effect it. Under such circumstances he must rather consider the
usefulness than the number of books, for which we have the authority of
Seneca, who tells us that a multitude of books is more burthensome than
instructive to the understanding.

"But if a private person has riches enough for founding a Library, as well
for his own use as for the public, he ought to furnish it with the most
useful volumes in all arts and sciences, and procure such as are scarcest
and most valuable, from all parts, that the learned, of whom there are
many classes, may instruct themselves in what may be useful to them, and
may gratify their enquiries. But as the condition and abilities of such as
would form Libraries are to be distinguished, so regard must likewise be
had to places, for it is very difficult to procure, or collect books in
some countries, without incredible expense; a design of that kind would be
impracticable in America, Africa, and some parts of Asia; so that nothing
can be determined as to the number of books, that depending entirely upon
a variety of circumstances, and the means of procuring them, as has been
observ'd before.

"As to the second topic, special care must be taken in the choice of
books, for upon that alone depends the value of a Library. We must not
form a judgment of books either by their bulk or numbers, but by their
intrinsic merit and usefulness. Alexander Severus's Library consisted of
no more than four volumes, that is the works of Plato, Cicero, Virgil, and
Horace. Melanchthon seems to have imitated that Prince, for his collection
amounted to four books only, Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, and Ptolemy.

"There is another necessary lesson for those who form designs of making
libraries, that is, that they must disengage themselves from all
prejudices with regard either to ancient or modern books, for such a wrong
step often precipitates the judgment, without scrutiny or examination, as
if tru