Page:The Library (Lang).djvu/16

 xii d'un Bibliophile," M. Paillet's catalogue, which is full of most humorous writing, and " Mes Livres," by M. Quentin Bauchart, and the works of Le Toqué commonly so called. But experience only, not study, can enlighten the collector. He must pay for his knowledge, like other mortals. One piece of advice may be given to him. It is far wiser to buy seldom, and at a high price, than to run round the stalls collecting twopenny treasures. This counsel was not taken by him who gives it. When I collected books ("'tis gone, 'tis gone"), I got together a wonderful heap of volumes, hopelessly imperfect. My "Lucasta," by Richard Lovelace, Esq. (1649), lacks the frontispiece. My Rochefoucauld (1665) has a couple of pages in facsimile (I know not which they are), and so forth. These things, though useful in a literary sense, are twopenny treasures. As for the short Elzevirs, the late Aldines, the incomplete angling curiosities, their name is legion. These are examples to avoid, and to be avoided is the habit of miscellaneously buying any volume which seems uncommon, except, of course, when it has a literary use. I is an error often to buy a book from a catalogue without inspecting it. Many booksellers appear to be careless or ignorant