Antiquities 



volumes free of duty. This tax is said to be 

 regulated by the nature rather of the binding 

 than by that of the book ; the unhappy pur- 

 chaser of the " Encyclopasdia Britannica," 

 bound in " three-quarter levant morocco " 

 (specially recommended), was mulcted in a 

 much more considerable sum than he who 

 was content with the same notorious work in 

 cloth covers. If either of them was induced 

 to order the well-made revolving bookcase, 

 he probably found that the duty on it was 

 about four shillings per pound avoirdupois. 

 So dearly must knowledge sometimes be bought. 

 This absence of any distributing agency for 

 literature affords a strange contrast to the 

 teeming bookshops of France and England ; 

 to the piles of cheap reprints both of time- 

 honoured and of modern works which are now 

 offered to us everywhere in such profusion ; to 

 the public libraries which flourish in every self- 

 respecting town. In this matter, as in so many 

 others, Portugal is still living under the con- 

 ditions of the eighteenth century. The root 

 of it all is to be found in the absence of educa- 

 tion ; until this is remedied there will be no 

 awakening. 



203 



