The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-12 00:00:00

But the habitual readers, who contrive to procure
a chair and a book, are, in general, happier than either
employes or librarians, alChough the saA readers have
the ofterkr neither stockings in their boots, nor shirts be-
neath their cravats. They present features of infinite
variety ; but all resemble one another by their punc-
tuality at the opening of the doors, by their constant
attendance, and their tenacious perseverance in cling-
Ing to their seat and and book until the garcon de rifle
solemnly proclaims that it is three o'clock. In gene-
ral the habitue rises in the morning, saying to himself,
" At ten I shall be at the library," and he gods to bed
at night contented with bis day, and promising to em-
ploy the morrow in the same way.
The habitue has always a candid soul, simple man-
ners, and limited tastes ; be cultivates lottnes and sue_
flowers on his acrid window ; he educates canary birds
in a cap; he possesses a yellow cat or a black dog ;
ho is a bachelor and a renkicr ; he lodges in
remote suburb, so as to turn his walks to the
library to the benefit- of his health, for he knows

how wholesome exercise is to his age and oen-

stitution ;he is, oe,ides, proof against-all the incle-
mency of the seasons, he who remains nailed to a
table without fire, and without breathing into bis
fingers when Chevalier's thermometer falls to ten de-

grees below zero—he who crosses the Place Louis
XV. or Chu7-up de Mars bareheaded, which the dog-
days' sun gives us at Paris a foretaste of the torrid sons.
The habitue of the public libraries never feels too hot
nor too cold ; he dreds not more wind than rain, hail
than fog ; but be never separates from his eternal um-
brella, except at the library doer. He bows tb the
concierge and to the concierge's wife, child, and dog ;
he takes a pinch a snuff with the floor-rubber, and utters
to him a " God bless you." The floor-rubber therefore
esteems him, and inquires about his health with
amenity.

When a wedding or a burial has prevented die habi-
tue from repairing to his post, when the habitue has not
made his appearance for three days together, a tear
may be given to his memory, for if he be not dead, he
will soon be. Several are mentioned who have crept in
a dying condi:ion to the library, and expi.red in it, sit-
ting on the very same chair they had occupied for 20
years, and closing their eyes upon the same book they
had worn out by turning it over.
The habitues, however, differ in mien and drees ; they
do not all take snuff ; they have not all a handkerchief
in their pocl‘et : their character depends also upon their
old education. One will salute his neighbours, speak to
and smile at them ; another keeps within himself, and
leaves you to doubt whether he be deaf or dumb. But,
whatever they be, they never prove unfaithful to the
library. There are concentrated their present and fu-
ture affections. Were they offered the honou aof a
justice de pair, or of a Minister's conciergerie, and were
they to accept such irksome greatness, they would soon
exclaim, " Let us be taken back to the library."
Behold this one with red ears and a florid complexion,
although not of Tartuffe's family ; he weara, both sum-
mer and winter, a heavy great coat of coarse canilet a
la proprietare, whose pockets his hands never forsake.
He slowly reaches the table most distant from the door
of the conservator's bureau, and from the passage of
those who go and come. He fetches himself a large
folio volume deposited by himself in the corner where
he daily tiads it ; he opens at random the soft folio in
the way of a cushion, bends his head over it, and quietly-
falls asleep, as Adana under the shade of the tree of
knowledge. He will wake when three o'clock strikes,
and perhaps the contact of the learned volume may
communicate to him in his dreams the disease of know
ledge.

Near hiM is an old man wide awake, and dry and
yellow as parchment, but sprightly, and almost jolly ;
he rubs his hands, crosses and uncrosses his legs,
shakes and swings his bald head, starts at times, bends
over the book he is meditating upon in such a man-
ner that his hooked nose seems to be fishing the
words out with a line. Surely that merry personage
has discovered in his blessed volume the art of grow-
ing young again, or of living as long as a parrot ? Not.
so ; he is reading over for the hundredth time the " Ad-
ventures of Telemachus," and is enraptured with the
wisdom of Mentor.

But look at the other old fellow, graver, more se-
vere, more solemn, who has heaped up before him ten
volumes covered with marks and counter-marks, and
who is extracting its text or spirit with conscientious
minuteness. He is not reading, if he have ever read,
Fenelon's prose poem ; but, for half a century past, he
has been in quest of the philosopher's stone ; he is sift-
ing. compiling, and commenting the writings of the al-
chymists ; he is retracing their steps which are rather
obliterated by the neglect and contempt of the present
generation ; he is never disheartened in his searches,
because he has faith ; and, the moment he hits upon
the secret of making gold, he fully intends to buy a
hat, boots, and a pair of trousers, for his present troll;
sers, boots, and hat could not extract three francs from
the crucible of any pawnbroker. He looks sideways
at his: neighbours, and conceals the titles of the books
he consults, lest the fruits of half a century of patient
labour may be stolen from hint.
His neighbour, however, by no means thinks of the
numberless manifestations of alebymy ; be is deeply
plunged in his reading, and completely abstracted from
all about him ; the noise does not reach his organs of
hearing ; he is no longer in the library : be is in the
seventh heaven with S:vedenborg's angels, or penetrating
into the bowels of the earth with the invisible spirits and
Becker's gnomes. He is, perhaps, the only man in
France who gives himself up to the devil ; he knows all
the dreams of Wier, Lavater, Delrio, and Bodin ; be
learns by art the invocations and conjurations ; he knows
the power of the magic circles and triangles ; he wor-
ships the demonologists, and, after so long exploring their
dusty books, wonders that he has not yet perceived the
tail or horns of Satan. If you say " Good day" to hits,
he will reply, " Abracadabra ;" when three O'clock
strikes he fancies he hears the Sabbath signal, and when
be takes up his cane at the door he is tempted to wield
it as the brooms which were wont to carry witches and
necromancers through space. The King's library is to
him the sanctuary of the occult sciences. -
Farther on, a less fantastic reader hums a military
tune, and drums the table with his fingers ; the ardour
of battle glitters in his grey eyes, and the blood rises to
his gashed brow ; he is a brave fellow of the ex-Guawl,
who is perusing the " Victoires et Conquetes" in Ge-
neral Beauvais's compilation ; he chafes with delight at
Marengo ; jumps on his chair at Austerlitz ; twists his
mustachios at Wagram ; and weeps and sobs atW aterloo.
" What's the matter with you ?" asks his neighbour on
on the right. "La garde incurt, et ne to rend pas!'"
replies with a groan Cambronne's soldier.
Every reader has his favourite, or rather his habitual
book ; he who feeds upon the." Dietionnaire dee
Sciences Medicales" is a ma/ark imaginaire ; lie who so
plentifully drinks at the sources of the French language
in the " Dictionnaire de l'Academie" is a ci-devaut cur-
rier. big fellow, classical unto death, has come
to study divine Racine ; that emaciated scare-crow has
already consumed three copies of the " Cuisiaier-royal ;"
that tall pale creature is withering on the Ilioniteur ;
that polypus with a human face does himself justice by
handling only books with pictures ; that species of
beggar, of hideous aspect, has as irres.st able penchant
for the " Lettres a Emilie" and " L'Almanach des
Muses ;" there is a competition to obtain the five codes,
the Bible, the " Diet;onnaire Philosophique" of Voltaire,
" L'Emile," and the " Contrat Social" of Rousseau,
Anquetil's " History of France," and the " Magazin
Pittoresque." •
And it is for such intellectual cravings that every
year, the Chamber of Deputies prove themselves almost
generous! and our most honourable men of learning,
chained to the librarian's hulks, are at the roe.rey of the
first scamp who wants a book before he hatilearnt to
read ! Who will restore to us the King's library such
as it was in the times of the Dupuys and Capreronniers ?
Instead of between five and six hundred halzilues, only
ten or twelve laborious readers were to be seen in it ;
but the latter were the Godefroys, Duchesnes, Bonaulys,
and Sainte-Palayes.—The Bibliophile Jacob.

On Monday afternoon, between three and four
o'clock, a messenger reached this city, bringing intelli-
gence that a fire was raging on the premises of Mr. Wm.
Ireland, of the Church-farm, Himbleton, and requiring
the immediate dospatch of the engines. Tboae of the
Phcenix and Birmingham offices were accordingly sent off
to the scene of destruction with most commendable alacrity,
but the flames bad nearly exhausted themselves before
their arrival, having destroyed the greater part of a rick of
hay of between thirty and forty tons, a barn, and a rick of
straw. The engines, however, were serviceable in extin-
gtubting the burning embers, and preventing further mill-
eller. The accident arose from the over-beating of the
hay-rick. We do not understard that any portion of the
property was insured.—Worcester Herded.
DEATH OF RICHARD YARWORTII.o—Mr.
Yarworth, who was shot and robbed of a considerable saw
of money on the 11th of January last at Pies Elm, on the
road leading from Tewkesbury to Cheltenham, died on
Friday morning, after severe suffering from the effect. a
the a winds which he received on that occasion. The un-
fortunate man had been removed from Piff's Elm to his
father's house at Dean Pool, near Coleford, and although
Fort was tried, it was found impossible to extract
every e
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engaged in that memorable event. There are now living
and serving in the army-1 Field Marshal, i Generals, 11l
Lieut.- Generals, 31 Major-Generals, 81 Colonels. ls 3
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Quartermasters, alid Surgeons, which, with 200 killed, or
died of wounds, and 1,343 sold out, died, retired, &La
mike up the 2,000.