Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/54

 It is perhaps desirable, before quitting the subject of Household Libraries, to devote a little attention to a department which is generally overlooked, either because it is not considered sufficiently important, or from motives of mistaken delicacy. Sir Walter Scott, with the plain, honest frankness which characterized him, describes what arrangements he made at Abbotsford to make this part of his house attractive, by papering it with amusing caricatures; but very few others, save occasionally architects or builders, ever give the apartment in question a thought. This is rather regrettable, as it makes explanation somewhat difficult to any pioneer who desires to grapple with the subject, but it is as well to be frank and deal plainly with the matter. Well, then, the Bibliotheca Latrina, as this department of the Household Library may be called, has a considerable claim to attention, and its furnishing with books should be undertaken along with the rest of the house. Considering the peculiar characteristics of the apartment in question, and the large amount of desultory reading which takes place in it, the books procured must necessarily be of a slight and unsustained kind. A capital class of book, eminently suitable for the purpose, will be found in small collections of anecdotes like Joe Miller, Chambers, Seton, Laird of Logan, and dozens of others which need not be named. Books of aphorisms, like MacNish or Smith's Tin Trumpet; short moral reflections, like those of La Rochefoucauld; or amusing works, like Beresford's