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 xiv contemporaries, is exaggerated. It is not every book, by any means, that is the better for being printed on large paper. Often the smaller size is much more handy and appropriate. Why Mr. Stevenson's first editions should be four or five times as valuable as Sir Walter Scott's is a mystery which, I am sure, will puzzle and divert the modern author. I cannot think that the end will justify those proceedings. Moreover, an author is vexed when his first edition is "quoted" at twenty times its original value, while his second edition languishes in obscurity. Booksellers injure a man when they charge a pound for his first edition, while there are hundreds of that very issue lying forlorn on his publishers [sic] shelves! This is a grevious [sic] form of popularity, and arises from the ignorance of collectors. When they know a little more, it will be better for all persons, except for some booksellers. Book-collecting ought not to be a mere trade, or a mere fad. Its object is to secure the comforts of a home for examples really rare or beautiful, or interesting as relics. We are in too great a hurry to canonise contemporaries, and to make relics of their first editions, which are probably their least correct editions. Large paper is not a good absolute and in itself, but only when