CHAPTER II. 



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LD books muft be loved, and their idiofyncrafies carefully 

 ftudied, before they will yield up all their treafures; 

 that done, the obfervant lover will obtain poffeffion 

 of both foul and body ; he may revel in the intellectual 

 feaft provided by the author, or he may ftudy the 

 material and mechanical features of the books as reprefented by the 

 peculiarities of paper and the habits and cuftoms of the various 

 printers. Then, by grouping thefe as a botanift does his flowers, 

 according to their organifation into claffes, orders, genera, and fpecies, 

 he may extract from his volumes true replies to queftions which 

 otherwife would remain hidden for ever. So true is the dictum, " The 

 Mind it is which fees, and not the Eye alone." 



Many bibliophiles, however, of education and tafte have been 

 pofitively blind when outfide the circle of their own particular ftudies. 

 So it was with the Rev. Dr. M'Neille, a well-known critic and book- 

 collector of fixty years ago. When addreffing Dr. Dibdin he wrote thus 

 of " The Book of St. Albans " " This book is itfelf ufelefs, and only 

 a bon morceau for the quizzical collector." With fuch feelings 

 towards one of the moft curious works which this country produced 

 during the infancy of the printing prefs, it was fimply impoffible that 

 the intereft of its pages fhould be revealed to him ; and however rich 

 in divinity and editiones principes of the claffics the library of the 



