BIBLIOMANIA. 



By Irving Bro^ 



[Read I 



. -J.] 



Of all the desires that from time to' time have takei 

 the sonls of men, none has been more engrossing and enduring than 

 the hobby of collecting books. Other passious have had their day. 

 The Dutch tulip craze raged fearfully while it lasted, but was of 

 ephemeral duration ; postage stamps, autographs, clocks, pipes and 

 walking sticks seem declining in interest ; mulberries have long since 

 gone to seed ; the cackle of fancy hens is scarcely heard ; numismatic 

 madness has faded away with the Pillars of Hercules ; china, pottery, 

 rugs, bric-a-brac are having their little day ; but Bibliomania, after a 

 period of comparative inaction, is now breaking afresli into that 

 feverish extravagance which marked its prevalence more than half a 

 century ago. 



Certainly there is no pursuit in which the fancy takes wider or more 

 diverse ranges, or in which more reckless expenditure is incurred ; and 

 it is equally certain that no outlay is regarded by the world at large as 

 quite so foolish and unremunerative as that in books. A ' 

 fills his stables with horses at fabulous prices, and ; 

 pays $30,000 for some cow with a royal name, 

 thinks these things strange. But when a gentlem 

 tastes expends $17,000 for a copy of the Mazarine bible, u« 

 first printed book, as happened a few years ag*o in England, 

 the other gentlemen, whose tastes incline to natural history, regard 

 him as a lunatic. Why, it is difficult to say. Blood-stock may die 

 to-morrow, certainly will die sometime, and their remains are wort 

 no more than those of the plebeian kind ; while a ran- 

 proper care, will outlast the life of empires and grow more valua 

 every day. 



Book collectors, in the true sense of the term, are never agreed ex- 

 cept in one particular : they all value the outside more than the inside, 

 they regard the volume more as merchandise, than as a vehic e 

 thought. It is the paper, type, ink, binding, date and publish, 

 rather than the contents, that are the criterions of desirability. 



tock breeder 

 nd nobody 

 of literary 



