th and knowledge were confined to any particular times or places.
The ancients and moderns should be placed in collections, indifferently,
provided they have those characters we hinted before.

"Let us now proceed to the third head, the manner of placing books in such
order, as that they may be resorted to upon any emergency, without
difficulty, otherwise they can produce but little advantage either to the
owners or others.

"The natural method of placing books and manuscripts is to range them in
separate classes or apartments, according to the science, art, or subject,
of which they treat.

"Here it will be necessary to observe, that as several authors have
treated of various subjects, it may be difficult to place them under any
particular class; Plutarch, for instance, who was an historian, a
political writer, and a philosopher. The most advisable method then is to
range them under the head of Miscellaneous Authors, with proper references
to each subject, but this will be more intelligible by an example.

"Suppose, then, we would know the names of the celebrated Historians of
the ancients; nothing more is necessary than to inspect the class under
which the historians are placed, and so of other Faculties. By this
management, one set of miscellaneous authors will be sufficient, and may
be resorted to with as much ease and expedition as those who have
confined themselves to one subject. In choice of books regard must be had
to the edition, character, paper and binding. As to the price, it is
difficult to give any positive directions; that of ordinary works is
easily known, but as to such as are very scarce and curious, we can only
observe that their price is as uncertain as that of medals and other
monuments of antiquity, and often depends more on the caprice of the buyer
than the intrinsic merit of the work, some piquing themselves upon the
possession of things from no other consideration than their exorbitant
price."

Dr. Byrom's quaint library is still preserved at Manchester in its
entirety. Bishop Moore's fine collection finds a resting place in the
University Library at Cambridge, and the relics of the Library of Harley,
Earl of Oxford, a mine of manuscript treasure, still remain one of the
chief glories of the British Museum. How much cause for regret is there
that the library itself, which Osborne bought and Johnson described, did
not also find a settled home, instead of being dispersed over the land.

It