The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-09-18 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN 108 which bewilder a student in a great bookseller's temptation-hall ? How easily one may distinguish a genuine lover of books from the worldly man ! With what subdued and yet glowing enthusiasm does he gaze upon the costly front of a thousand embattled volumes ! How gently he draws them down as if they were little children ; how tenderly he handles them ! He peers at the title-page, at the text, or the notes, with the nicety of a bird examining a flower. He studies the binding ; the leather— Russia, English, calf, morocco ; the lettering, the gilding, the edging, the hinge of the cover ! He opens it and shuts it, he holds it off and brings it nigh. It suffuses his old body with book-mag netism. He walks up and down in a maze, at the mysterious allotments of Providence that gives so much money to men who spend it upon their appetites, and so little to men who would spend it in benevolence, or upon their refined taste ! It is astonishing, too, how one's necessities mul tiply in the presence of the supply. One is sur prised to perceive, at some bazaar or fancy and variety store, how many conveniences he needs. He is satisfied that his life must have been utterly inconvenient aforetime. And thus, too, he is in wardly convicted, at Appletons's, of having lived for years without books which he is now satisfied that one cannot live without. Then, too, the subtle process by which the man convinces himself that he can afford to buy. No subtle manager or broker ever saw through a maze of financial embarrassments half so quick as a poor book-buyer sees his way clear to pay for what he must have. He promises with himself marvels of retrenchment—he will eat less, or drink less costly viands, that he may buy more food for the mind. He will take an extra patch, and go on with his raiment another year and buy books instead of coats. Yes, he will write books that he may buy books. He will lecture, teach, trade ; he will do any honest thing for money to buy books ! The appetite is insatiable. Feeding does not satisfy it. It rages by the fuel which is put upon it. As a hungry man eats first, and pays afterward, so the book-buyer purchases, and then works at the debt afterward. The paying is rather medicinal. It cures for a time. But a relapse takes place. The same longing, the same promises of self-denial. He promises him self to put spurs on both heels of his industry ; and then, besides all this, he will somehow get along when the time for payment comes ! Ah ! this somehow ! That word is as big as a whole world, and is stuffed with all the vagaries and fantasies that fancy ever bred upon hope. And yet, is there not some comfort in buying books to be paid for ? We have heard of a sot, who wished his neck as long as the worm of a still that he might so much the longer -enjoy the flavour of the draught!! Thus it is a prolonged excitement of purchase, if you feel for six months in a slight doubt whether the book is honestly your own or not. Had you paid down that would have been the end of it. There would have been no affec tionate and beseeching look of your books at you, every time you saw them, saying, as plain as a book's eyes can say, " Do not let me be taken from you." Moreover, buying books before you can pay for them promotes caution. You do not feel quite at liberty to take them home. You are married. Your wife keeps an account book. She knows to a penny what you can and what you cannot afford. She has no " speculation " in her eyes. Plain figures make desperate work with airy " somehow." It is a matter of no small skill and experience to get your books home, and into their proper places undiscovered. Perhaps the blunder ing express brings them to the door just at evening, " What is it, my dear ?" she says to you. "0, nothing—a few books that I cannot do without." That smile ! A true housewife that loves her husband can smile a whole arithmetic at him in one look ! Of course she insists, in the kindest way, in sympathising with you in your literary acquisition. She cuts the strings of the bundle (and of your heart) and out comes the whole story. You have bought a complete set of costly English books, full bound in calf, extra gilt ! You are caught, and feel very much as if bound in calf yourself, and admirably lettered. Now, this must not happen frequently. The books must be smuggled home. Let them be sent to some near place. Then, when your wife has a headache, or is out making a call, or has lain down, run the books across the frontier and threshold, hastily undo them, stop only for one loving glance as you put them in the closet, or behind other books on the shelf. Clear away the twine and wrapping-paper, and every suspicious circumstance. Be very careful not to be too kind. That often brings on detection. Only the other day we heard it said, somewhere, " Why, how good you have been lately. lam really afraid that you have been carrying on mis chief secretly." " Our heart smote us. It was a fact. That very day we had bought a few books which we could not do without.' After a while, you can bring out one volume, accidentally, and leave it on the table." " Why, my dear, what a beautiful book ! where did you borrow it ?" You can glance over the newspaper, with the quietest tone you can command. " That ! oh that is mine. Have you not seen it before ? It has been in the house these two months"—and you rush on with anecdote and incident, and point out the binding, and tkpecu liar trick of gilding, and everything else - 3= can think of ; but it all will not do—you cannot rub out that roguish, arithmetical smile. People may talk about the equality - of the sexes ! They are not equal. The silent smile of a sensible, loving woman, will vanquish ten men. Of course you repent, and in time form a habit of repenting. Another method which will be found peculiarly effective is, to make a present of some fine work to your wife. Of course, whether she or you have the name of buying it, it will go into your collection, and be yours to all intents and pur poses. But it stops remark in the presentation. A wife could not reprove you for so kindly think ing of her. No matter what she suspects, she will say nothing. And then if there are three or more works, which have come with the gift-book, they will pass through the favour of the other. These are pleasures denied to wealth and old bachelors. Indeed, one cannot imagine the pecu liar pleasure of buying books, if one is rich and stupid. There must be some pleasure, or so many would not do it. But the full flavour, the whole relish of delight, only comes to those who are so poor that they must engineer for every book. They sit down before them, and besiege them. They are captured. Each book has a secret his tory of ways and maims. It reminds you of subtle devices by which you insured and made it yours, in spite of poverty ! LITERARY EXTRACTS. HOSPITALITY OF THE RITSSIANS.—The Russians in general are very hospitable; and in the country, where they lead a very solitary monotonous life, are glad to see any one who can procure them a little variety, as they have no sources of amusement whatever except shooting or coursing ; but when a man is not a sportsman, even these fail him, for books are very rare, very expensive, and not very interesting, on ac- BARD. count of the extreme severity of the centi exercised; a really po d work is a gre4lto seldom to be met with in a Russian _ . ,,,,,0 hence they are glad to see anybodY. no them a little news, be it ever so stale ;100; lowest, esltt,usyseila.ynshotlsile3iitrabdilet.e ; A the g Y en 3 e r rx e 'l 7 2,,tei vitsi i i; always means, in town, that you are gr; - ,,,, two or three times a we ek about dinne.7,ll, out being asked, take yo ur seat at tn 74 of the family. If you decline stdyll quite hurt ; even the very servants 1,,,i, remain and take dinner with the fa / 0 are asked to go to the country, you , S visit, to give any previous notice Of visit, but to go at any time you feel illni are sure to meet with a wardsreP7o.l petted to remain just as long it V i ,:i convenience.—Blackwood s ilifil.VMs.e f, MORAL EFFECTS OF TSB 1 1, 17 0 AN Italian and Greek fast, the chief e i ll ec ion Ki t month" upon true believers is to u ar , s ; e r of into positive gloom. Their voices, o, o lti by i t : acquire, especially after noon, te....114, creaking tone. The men curse one,oeitA 00 11 1 the women. The women slap and abbe s ril and these in their turn cruelly ill„; tr 0 language to the dogs and cats• le ll f the ten minutes in any populous partt e " ~.V hearing some violent dispute. 1 : 1 , ifiA l if station-houses, are filled with lob.' station ministered an undue dose of C°7o4lsii ladies, and with ladies who have Sera ladies, otherwise injured the bodies ~,e ` . 0 1 , mosques are crowded with a sIuNT to off , f tion, making themselves offers t 4 itest:o earth, whilst working their waY 7,tileNei shade, under the outer walls, the; . 4 4 to 00,4 1 been expelled the church, at te ZiocA9 miseries in spiritless play. Io wi ir - lbeil l isY tolerablyp strangeral e , Ncross,.‘ lon g - drawn.llea sometimestf e a he yo ur , i m O O e k ee il e : 7001 p c:i/no 11 4 : e se;; ; it ---Burton's Pilgrimage to tiSt o ter be otil ACTS OF HEROISM AT SEA, ~Pt e Iv' 0 1 ', 1 8 of April, the galliot AriadnePoe,At, t at ' age near Thurso, in stormy °I ,JSP3tII I I wreck ; out started, in a cornnl e A i it'' '"', ll , i;: li chant of Thurso Mr. David Sill"' '4' e, : - . t e v 4 men, and bravely bro'usrhashore ,k_ Abui", m tiVi with the master's wife and col. a r,,,,,' sea-weed shipped a heavy sea ,t,. e 0 111 ' 1 0; coast of Donegal. Its crew of . ,w7atfOrect ing, and it blew a omle • out std the t, Brave women God bless thera!)„- f i rie,) barque Mahomed Shah on the 4 4 ",. ° P`y 1 New Zealand, took fire at sea. '' Lcf f i the brig Ellen, saved, at great 4 051,Z; passengers, 59 souls, and found_ i llw o)p in his own vessel to Hobart To", 410 ivt' miles from the scene of the catastJ-A/ty boat was wrecked during a heal' ;10 1 " Bay, was struggling in the wat e atOed by a farmer's boy, who rushed w:i f ill a Vi and imperilled his own life seri .. oll ,',woo2i a rescue. A Norwegian brig cir e- K 1? on the coast of Suffolk, during 9 , l3 ta bor ft dark night, The Pakefield uvire6i Captain Joachim put out to 0 ' 1 , 8 4 ii; li f midst of the darkness and the 5 0 4 0,6 crew madly swearing that they fo e ship, and resist every effort mati e „) ) le r boat returned, allowed the ulis e ,,,l; I # 4. 'i,' become sober, went to them an glad enough to come ashore. f t 'Alf' on the 18th of October last on the if yi its little crew was mixed by 1 101 ,1 4° Pv, took ei sh . . 0 y r n e ofEou b us O eis a . : ll,o , :i t odu l N r sT l v l t : : l d. es t Ga. h cr e hl G te a e. iv r Tr ag e :el : , ; I t !; 11 f ° fathers was a most expressive 1 7,,e went, but then it was the tongu e ; o°' versed in literature, science, au' o f or formed in a comparatively rude t erl i less, of the same origin as the : ' ' by the Teutonic races, and hau ft o 6 ,4 j characteristics as the German. ` I ,OVA of being compounded to anY . 0 4019 should have tested its powers 'C hac e r not been our good fortune to TLSEFTEuP