n of a book to
Pieresc) 'are a firmament wherein the stars of learning shine; the desks
are lit with starlight, and the books are in constellations, and you sit
like the sun in the midst, embracing and giving light to them all.' 'The
library is to be open to all the world without the exception of any
living soul; readers were to be supplied with chairs and writing
materials, and the attendants will fetch all books required in any
language or department of learning, and will change them as often as is
necessary.'[71]

* * * * *

'Bouchard states, in his funeral oration on Pieresc, "To this his shop
and storehouse of wisdom and virtue, Peireskius did not only courteously
admit all travellers, studious of art and learning, opening to them all
the treasures of his library, but he would keep them there a long time,
with free and liberal entertainment; and at their departure, would give
them books, coins, and other things, which seemed most suitable to their
studies; also he freely gave them at his own expense, whatever things
they wanted, most liberally, even as to all other learned men, who were
absent, and whose names he had only heard of; whatever he had among his
books or relics of antiquity, which he thought might assist them in
their writings, he would send it them of his own accord, not only
without their desiring the same, but many times when they were ignorant
of such things.'[72]

FOOTNOTES:

[70] _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, pp. 219, 220.

[71] Elton, _Great Book Collectors_, pp. 180-4.

[72] _The Library_, July, 1895.

_Mr. Ruskin's Advice._

'I say first we have despised literature. What do we, as a nation, care
about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries,
public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses? If a
man spends lavishly on his library, you call him mad--a biblio-maniac.
But you never call any one a horse maniac, though men ruin themselves
every day by their horses, and you do not hear of people ruining
themselves by their books. Or, to go lower still, how much do you think
the bookshelves of the United Kingdom, public and private, would fetch,
as compared with the contents of its wine-cellars? What position would
its expenditure on literature take as compared with its expenditure on
luxurious eating? We talk of food for the mind, as of food for the body:
now a good book contains such food inexhaustibly; it