'RECESS' IN RHYME 131

JAQUES IN LOVE 139

MOCKING AT MATRIMONY 148

PARSON POETS 156

THE OUTSIDES OF BOOKS 164

THE NOT IMPOSSIBLE SHE 172

NONSENSE VERSES 180

SINGLE-SPEECH HAMILTONS 188

DRAMATIC NOMENCLATURE 196

PUNS AND PATRONYMICS 203

'YOURS TRULY' 209

POSTSCRIPTS 217

_BY-WAYS IN BOOK-LAND_

PAPER-KNIFE PLEASURES.

One is for ever hearing enough and to spare about old books and those
who love them. There is a whole literature of the subject. The men
themselves, from Charles Lamb downwards, have over and over again
described their ecstasies--with what joy they have pounced upon some
rare edition, and with what reverence they have ever afterwards regarded
it. It is some time since Mr. Buchanan drew his quasi-pathetic picture
of the book-hunter, bargaining for his prize,

'With the odd sixpence in his hand,
And greed in his gray eyes;'

having, moreover, in his mind's eye as he walked

'Vistas of dusty libraries
Prolonged eternally.'

Mr. Andrew Lang, too, has sung to us of the man who 'book-hunts while
the loungers fly,' who 'book-hunts though December freeze,' for whom

'Each tract that flutters in the breeze
Is charged with hopes and fears,'

while

'In mouldy novels fancy sees
Aldines, Bodonis, Elzevirs.'

There are periodicals which cater solely for old-book adorers; and while
on the one hand your enthusiast will publish his 'Pleasures' and
'Diversions,' on the other a contemporary will devote a volume to the
subjects which attract and interest 'the Book Fancier.'

Meanwhile, is there nothing to be said of, or by, the admirer of new
books--the man or woman who rejoices in the pleasant act of turning over
new leaves? At a time when volumes are issuing by the dozen from the
publishers' counters, shall not something be chronicled of the happiness
which lies in the contemplation, the perusal, of the literary product
which comes hot from the press? For, to begin with, the new books have
at least this great advantage over the old--that they are clean. It is
not everybody who can wax dithyrambic over the 'dusty' and the 'mouldy.'
It is possible for a volume to be too 'second-hand.' Your devotee, to be
sure, thinks fondly of the many hands, dead and gone, through whi