ide was
eager for information concerning American libraries, asking
particularly about the size and classification of the Boston Public
Library. It was a pleasure to respond to one so intelligent and
interested, and I felt sure he would make good use of every scrap of
trustworthy information. He showed us his books with pride, and gave
many interesting particulars. He also displayed to us some of the
treasures kept in glass cases and usually covered from the light. Here
were Luther's manuscript translation of the Bible, Gutenberg's Bible,
the first book printed on movable types, the ancient Codex of the time
of Charlemagne, miniatures, illuminated missals, and other things of
much interest. As my dinner-hour approached I begged off for that day
from the cordially offered inspection of the celebrated Hamilton
manuscripts. It is said that the highest-priced book ever sold was the
vellum missal presented to King Henry VIII. by Pope Leo X., which
brought $50,000. The missal was accompanied by a document conferring
on the King the title of "Defender of the Faith." It is now in this
collection, having been given by King Charles II. to an ancestor of
the Duke of Hamilton, whose manuscripts were purchased by the German
Government in 1882.

The tables of the reading-rooms for periodicals are well filled with
magazines in all languages, and equal politeness is shown by
officials. The apartments are in the second story, reached by a
stairway ascending from a paved court off the Behren Strasse, in the
rear of the Imperial Palace. No lovely spring-time memories are to us
more vivid and attractive than those of the library reading-room, in
the second story of the Library building, looking on the Opera Platz.
Here, among many students of all nationalities from the University, I
was wont to spend long delicious afternoons at a table of my own
choosing, to which attentive officials brought the books of my
selection, and where I was free to turn to books of reference on the
shelves beside me. The room would accommodate perhaps two hundred,
similarly employed. Among those I frequently met there were a German
lady and an American gentleman whom I was so happy as to number among
my friends. Intercourse between our tables was by smiles and nods,
seldom crystallizing into words, but these were not wanted. Four
centuries looked down upon us in portraits from the walls, and forty
centuries were ours in the books below them. As the season advan