This is no doubt one of the milder and more of this class of unfortunates, that the first inoffensive type, but still a thoroughly con- act of duplicity is immediately followed by firmed and obstinate case. Its parallel to an access of the disorder, and a reckless the classes who are to be taken charge of by abandonment to its propensities. The archtheir wiser neighbors is only too close and deacon had long passed this stage ere he awful; for have we not sometimes found the crossed our path, and had become thoroughly female members of his household, on occa- hardened. He was not remarkable for local sion of some domestic emergency—or, it may attachment; and in moving from place to be, for mere sake of keeping the lost man place, his spoil, packed in innumerable great out of mischief-have we not found them boxes, sometimes followed him, to remain searching for him on from bookstall unto unreleased during the whole period of his bookstall, just as the mothers, wives, and tarrying in his new abode, so that they were daughters of other lost men hunt them removed to the next stage of his journey through their favorite taverns? Then, again, through life with modified inconvenience. can we forget that occasion of his going to Cruel as it may seem, we must yet notice London to be examined by a committee of another and a peculiar vagary of his malady. the House of Commons, when he suddenly He had resolved, at least once in his life, to disappeared with all his money in his pocket, part with a considerable proportion of his and returned penniless, followed by a wag- collection-better to suffer the anguish of on containing three hundred and seventy- such an act than endure the fretting of contwo copies of rare editions of the Bible? All tinued restraint. There was a wondrous were fish that came to his net. At one time sale by auction accordingly; it was someyou might find him securing a minnow for thing like what may have occurred at the sixpence at a stall-and presently afterwards dissolution of the monasteries at the Reforhe outbids some princely collector, and se- mation, or when the contents of some timecures with frantic impetuosity, "at any honored public library were realized at the price," a great fish he has been patiently time of the French Revolution. Before the watching for year after year. His hunting-affair was over, the archdeacon himself grounds were wide and distant, and there made his appearance in the midst of the were mysterious rumors about the numbers miscellaneous self-invited guests who were of copies, all identically the same in edition and minor individualities, which he possessed of certain books. We have known him, indeed, when beaten at an auction, turn round resignedly and say, “Well, so be it but I dare say I have ten or twelve copies at home, if I could lay hands on them."

making free with his treasures. He pretended, honest man, to be a mere casual spectator, who, having seen, in passing, the announcement of a sale by auction, stepped in like the rest of the public. By degrees he got excited, gasped once or twice as if mastering some desperate impulse, and at length fairly bade. He could not brazen out the effect of this escapade, however, and disappeared from the scene. It was remarked, however, that an unusual number of lots were afterwards knocked down to a military gentleman, who seemed to have left portentously large orders with the auctioneer. Some curious suspicions began to arise, which were settled by that presiding genius bending over his rostrum, and explaining in a confidential whisper that the military hero was in reality a pillar of the church so disguised.

It is a matter of extreme anxiety to his friends, and, if he have a well-constituted mind, of sad misgiving to himself, when the collector buys his first duplicate. It is like the first secret dram swallowed in the forenoon-the first pawning of the silver spoons, or any other terrible first step downwards you may please to liken it to. There is no hope for the patient after this. It rends at once the veil of decorum spun out of the flimsy sophisms by which he has been deceiving his friends, and partially deceiving himself, into the belief that his previous The archdeacon lay under what, among purchases were necessary, or, at all events, the deluded victims of his malady, was serviceable for professional and literary deemed a heavy scandal. He was suspected purposes. He now becomes shameless and of reading his own books-that is to say, hardened; and it is observable in the career when he could get at them; for there are

thou art endeavoring to take what is not after the administration of patronage. But, thine own, but mine, because thou believest at the same time, the area of punishmentthat, having abjured the arm of the flesh, I or of "treatment," as it is mildly termed cannot hinder thee. And yet, as thy friend, becomes alarmingly widened, and people I advise thee to desist; for shouldst thou require to look sharply into themselves lest succeed in rousing the old Adam within me, they should be tainted with any little frailty perchance he may prove too strong, not only or peculiarity which may transfer them from for me, but for thee." There was no use of the class of free self-regulators to that of an attempt to answer such an argument. persons "under treatment." In Owen's The object of this rambling preamble is to parallelograms there were to be no prisons: win from the reader a morsel of genial fel- he admitted no power in one man to inflict low feeling towards the human frailty which punishment upon another for merely subwe are going to examine and lay bare before mitting to the dictates of natural propensihim, trusting that he will treat it neither ties which could not be resisted. But, at with the haughty disdain of the immaculate, the same time, there were to be hospitals in nor the grim charity of the "miserable sin- which not only the physically diseased, but ner." It is a strong instance to cite, per- also the mentally and morally diseased, haps; and yet there is some soundness in were to be detained until they were cured; the rather extreme tolerance of the old and when we reflect that the laws of the Aberdeen laird's wife, who, when her sister parallelogram were very stringent and milairdesses were enriching the tea-table con-nute, and required to be absolutely enforced versation with broad descriptions of the to the letter, otherwise the whole machinery abominable vices of their several spouses, said of society would come to pieces, like a watch her own 66 was just a gueed, weel-tempered, with a broken spring, it is clear that these couthy, queat, innocent, daedlin, drucken hospitals would have contained a very large body-wi' nae ill practices aboot him ava!" portion of the unrationalized population. What would our Social Progress, Band of Hope, and Philanthropic League philosophers say to a charity like this? And here, by the way, we are reminded how perilous a thing it is, in these days of enlightened thought and action, to draw attention to any kind of human frailty or folly, since the world is full of people who are prepared to deal with ard cure it, provided only that they are to have their own way with the disease and the patient, and that they shall enjoy the simple privilege of locking him up, dieting him, and taking possession of his worldly goods and interests, as one who, by his irrational habits, or his outrages on the laws of physiology, or the fitness of things, or some other neology, has satisfactorily established his utter incapacity to take charge of his own affairs. No! This is not a cruel age; the rack, the wheel, the boot, the thumbikins, even the pillory and the stocks, have disappeared; death punishment is dwindling away, and if convicts have not their full rations of cooked meat, or get damaged coffee or sour milk, or are inadequately supplied with flannels and clean linen, there will be an outcry and an inquiry, and a Secretary of State will lose a percentage of his influence, and learn to look better

There is rather too much of this sort of Owenism now among us, and it is therefore with some little misgiving that we betray a brother's weakness, and lay bare the diagnosis of a peculiar and interesting human frailty. Indeed, the bad name that proverbially hangs the dog has already been given to it, for bibliomania is older in the technology of this kind of nosology than dipsomania, which is, we understand, now an almost established ground for seclusion, and deprivation of the management of one's own affairs. There is one ground of consolation, however, that, not being popular among the class of enlightened philanthropists, our exposition may pass unnoticed, and the harmless class on whose peculiar frailties we propose to devote a gentle and kindly exposition may yet be permitted to go at large.

As our first case, let us summon from the shades our venerable friend, Archdeacon Meadow, as he was in the body. We see him now-tall, straight, and meagre, but with a grim dignity in his air which warms into benignity as he inspects a pretty little clean Elzevir, or a tall portly Stephens, concluding his inward estimate of the prize with a peculiar grunting chuckle, known by the initiated to be an important announcement.

This is no doubt one of the milder and more of this class of unfortunates, that the first inoffensive type, but still a thoroughly con- act of duplicity is immediately followed by firmed and obstinate case. Its parallel to an access of the disorder, and a reckless the classes who are to be taken charge of by abandonment to its propensities. The archtheir wiser neighbors is only too close and deacon had long passed this stage ere he awful; for have we not sometimes found the crossed our path, and had become thoroughly female members of his household, on occa- hardened. He was not remarkable for local sion of some domestic emergency-or, it may attachment; and in moving from place to be, for mere sake of keeping the lost man place, his spoil, packed in innumerable great out of mischief-have we not found them boxes, sometimes followed him, to remain searching for him on from bookstall unto unreleased during the whole period of his bookstall, just as the mothers, wives, and tarrying in his new abode, so that they were daughters of other lost men hunt them removed to the next stage of his journey through their favorite taverns? Then, again, through life with modified inconvenience. can we forget that occasion of his going to Cruel as it may seem, we must yet notice London to be examined by a committee of another and a peculiar vagary of his malady. the House of Commons, when he suddenly He had resolved, at least once in his life, to disappeared with all his money in his pocket, part with a considerable proportion of his and returned penniless, followed by a wag- collection-better to suffer the anguish of on containing three hundred and seventy- such an act than endure the fretting of contwo copies of rare editions of the Bible? All tinued restraint. There was a wondrous were fish that came to his net. At one time sale by auction accordingly; it was someyou might find him securing a minnow for thing like what may have occurred at the sixpence at a stall-and presently afterwards dissolution of the monasteries at the Reforhe outbids some princely collector, and se- mation, or when the contents of some timecures with frantic impetuosity, "at any honored public library were realized at the price," a great fish he has been patiently time of the French Revolution. Before the watching for year after year. His hunting- affair was over, the archdeacon himself grounds were wide and distant, and there were mysterious rumors about the numbers of copies, all identically the same in edition and minor individualities, which he possessed of certain books. We have known him, indeed, when beaten at an auction, turn round resignedly and say, "Well, so be it but I dare say I have ten or twelve copies at home, if I could lay hands on them."

made his appearance in the midst of the miscellaneous self-invited guests who were making free with his treasures. He pretended, honest man, to be a mere casual spectator, who, having seen, in passing, the announcement of a sale by auction, stepped in like the rest of the public. By degrees he got excited, gasped once or twice as if mastering some desperate impulse, and at length fairly bade. He could not brazen out the effect of this escapade, however, and disappeared from the scene. It was remarked, however, that an unusual number of lots were afterwards knocked down to a military gentleman, who seemed to have left portentously large orders with the auctioneer. Some curious suspicions began to arise, which were settled by that presiding genius bending over his rostrum, and explaining in a confidential whisper that the military hero was in reality a pillar of the church so disguised.

It is a matter of extreme anxiety to his friends, and, if he have a well-constituted mind, of sad misgiving to himself, when the collector buys his first duplicate. It is like the first secret dram swallowed in the forenoon-the first pawning of the silver spoons, or any other terrible first step downwards you may please to liken it to. There is no hope for the patient after this. It rends at once the veil of decorum spun out of the flimsy sophisms by which he has been deceiving his friends, and partially deceiving himself, into the belief that his previous The archdeacon lay under what, among purchases were necessary, or, at all events, the deluded victims of his malady, was serviceable for professional and literary deemed a heavy scandal. He was suspected purposes. He now becomes shameless and of reading his own books-that is to say, hardened; and it is observable in the career when he could get at them; for there are

those who may still remember his rather | totally different fashion. He was far from shamefaced apparition of an evening, peti- omnivorous. He had a principle of selectioning, somewhat in the tone with which tion peculiar and separate from all others, as an old schoolfellow down in the world re- was his own individuality from other men's. quests your assistance to help him to go to You could not classify his library according York to get an appointment-petitioning to any of the accepted nomenclatures peculfor the loan of a volume of which he could iar to the initiated. He was not a blacknot deny that he possessed numberless cop- letter man, or a tall-copyist, or an uncut ies lurking in divers parts of his vast col- man, or a rough-edge man, or an early-Englection. This reputation of reading the lish-dramatist, or an Elzevirian, or a broadbooks in his collection, which should be sider, or a pasquinader, or an old-brown-calf sacred to external inspection solely, is with man, or a tawny-moroccoite, or a gilt-topper, the initiated a scandal, such as it would be a marbled-insider, or an editio princeps man; among a hunting set to hint that a man had neither did he come under any of the more killed a fox. In the dialogues, not always vulgar classifications of an antiquarian, or a the most entertaining, of Dibdin's Biblio- belles-lettres, or a classical collector. There mania, there is this short passage: "I was no way of defining his peculiar walk save will frankly confess, rejoined Lysander, by his own name-it was the Fitzpatrick'that I am an arrant bibliomaniac-that Smart walk. In fact, it wound itself in infiI love books dearly-that the very sight, nite windings through isolated spots of litertouch, and mere perusal-' 'Hold, my ary scenery, if we may so speak, in which he friend,' again exclaimed Philemon: 'you took a personal interest. There were hishave renounced your profession-you talk of reading books-do bibliomaniacs ever read books?""

torical events, bits of family history, chiefly of a tragic or a scandalous kind,-efforts of art or of literary genius on which, through Yes, our venerable friend read books-he some intellectual law, his mind and memory devoured them; and he did so to full prolific loved to dwell; and it was in reference to purpose. His was a mind enriched with va- these that he collected. If the book were ried learning, which he gave forth with full, the one desired by him, no anxiety and toil, strong, easy flow, like an inexhaustible per- no payable price, was to be grudged for its ennial spring coming from inner reservoirs, acquisition. If the book were an inch out never dry, yet too capacious to exhibit the of his own line, it might be trampled in the brawling, bubbling symptoms of repletion. mire for aught he cared, be it as rare or It was from a majestic heedlessness of the costly as it could be. It was difficult, albusy world and its fame that he got the char- most impossible, for others to predicate acter of indolence, and was set down as one what would please this wayward sort of who would leave no lasting memorial of his taste, and he was the torment of the bookgreat learning. But when he died, it was caterers, who were sure of a princely price not altogether without leaving a sign; for for the right article, but might have the from the casual droppings of his pen has wrong one thrown in their teeth with conbeen preserved enough to signify to many tumely. It was a perilous, but, if successful, generations of students in the walk he chiefly a gratifying, thing to present him with a affected how richly his mind was stored, and book. If it happened to hit his fancy, he how much fresh matter there is in those fields felt the full force of the compliment, and of inquiry where compilers have left their overwhelmed the giver with his courtly dreary tracks for ardent students to culti-thanks. But it required great observation vate into a rich harvest. In him truly the bibliomania may be counted among the many illustrations of the truth so often moralized on, that the highest natures are not exempt from human frailty in some shape or other. Let us now summon the shade of another departed victim-Fitzpatrick Smart, Esq. He too, through a long life, had been a vigilant and enthusiastic collector, but after a

and tact to fit one for such an adventure, for the chances against an ordinary thoughtless gift-maker were thousands to one; and those who were acquainted with his strange nervous temperament, knew that the existence within his dwelling-place of any book not of his own special kind, would impart to him the sort of feeling of uneasy horror which a bee is said to feel when an earwig