description which seem hopeless ever to be reprinted, but old editions 

 of writers such us Sir Philip Sidney, Bishop Taylor, Milton in his 

 prose works, Fuller — of whom we have reprints, yet the books them- 

 selves, though they go about and are talked of here and there, we 

 know, have not endenizened themselves (nor possibly ever will) in the 

 national heart, so as to become stock books — it is good to possess these 

 in costly and durable covers. " 



"To view a well-arranged assortment of block-headed encyclopaedias 

 (Anglicanas or Metropolitanas) set out in an array of Russia or morocco, 

 when a tithe of that good leather would comfortably re-clothe my 

 shivering folios ; would renovate Paracelsus himself, and enable old 

 Raymond Lully to look like himself again in the world — I never see 

 these imposters but I long to strip them and warm my ragged veterans 

 in their spoils." 



Leigh Hunt, too, held similar views: "I confess my weakness in 

 liking to see some of my favorite purchases neatly bound. For most 

 of these I like a good plain old binding, never mind how old, provided 

 it wears well, but my Arabian Nights may be bound in as fine and 

 flowery a style as possible, and I should love an engraving to every 

 dozen pages." 



Here then we have the true theory of binding books ; good and 

 rare books deserve a costly dress, none beside. 



One may find precedents on either side of the question of rich bind- 

 ing, for Adam Smith was a dandy, and Dr. Bethune a sloven, in respect 

 of this point. 



In view of the whimsicalities of Bibliomaniacs it has occurred to me 

 that it would be useful to endeavor to render the binding of books 

 suggestive of the contents. Thus as to colors : one might appropriately 

 dress military treatises in red, theological in blue, gastronomical in 

 claret or salmon ; books on magic in black, and a history of pugilism 

 in blue black ; instructions for actors and singers in yellow, and guide- 

 books and travels in orange. Again : one might bind Lamb in pea- 

 green ; the History of the Friends in drab ; of the Popes in scarlet, and 

 Cicero de Senectute in gray; while Magna Charta should always be pre- 

 served. in violet. When one considers materials he naturally looks for 

 an account of the Crimean war in Russia, a History of the Barbary 

 States in morocco, accounts of intestine convulsions in vellum, works 

 on arboriculture in tree-calf, Bacon in hog-skin, biographies of 

 celebrated women in muslin, statistics of the lumber trade in boards, 

 a description of Saxony in sheep, and all love tales in plain calf with 

 clasps. One's collection of criminal trials should be in full gilt, and 

 accounts of famous sculptors in marbled sides and edges. Any History 



