Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-08-29
Libraries.

ii. l.. told me he once found a foolish
pedantic old millionaire curled up il
luxurious apartment, walled witt
he had ever read, but all of which h,
pretended to have devoured. l.. say:
that when re entered this room, be-
studded with glittering tones, the pro-
prietOr exclaimed. "And so you have
found me out at last, alone with my
books, Here's where | hide away
from the family, day after day, and
BoJ0dy's none the ,riSer''' Pierce Egan
has an anecdOte of another Literary
character" which | quote in this con-
nectiOn without comment.
"A lady, resident in Devonshire, go
ing into one of her parlOrs, discovered
young ass, who had found his way
into the room and carefully closed the
door upon himself. He had evidently
not been long in this situation before he
had nibbled part of Cicero's OratiOns
and eaten nearly all the index of folio
edition of Seneca in Latin, large part
of a volume of La Bruyere's 'Maxims
in French, and several pages of Cecilia.
He had done n other mischief what
ever"
The library of old Sir John Danvers,
as described by Bernard, must have
been a curiosity. 1t abOunded with the
best works of the best authors, but
there was not one perfect volume in it.
80 eager had been Sir John i'm his pur-
suit Of knowledge, says Bernard, that
he had inspected every book in his col
lection: and wherever a passage pleased
him, he tore ont the leaf and thrust II into
his pocket
That was clever remark of an Eng
lish esSayist who told us so many years
ago that he had such a reverence for
the wisdom folded up on his library
shelves that he considered the very
perusal of the backs of his books "a
discipline of humanity"
There are some household libraries
which once visited can never be for
gotten. r. ". has one, ''filled TO over
WIN ol fdlilipl
move about ii anywhere and not be en-
chanted. There is scarcely an edition of
any literary work worth owning that
cannot be discovered on his shelves. and
if you have year at your disposal ii is
none too long to spend in that "hOuse
of fame" DIS collection is a rare one.
but he 'rU insist on telling you the cost
of every set of books in his possession,
and thus eXasperate you with financial
values when you only wish for literary
estimates. What do | care how much
he paid ''in gOld'' for the bindings of his
various Shakspeares? 1t is the ''inspired
leaves" we are after, and not the gilded
glories on the outside, Arrian tells us
the Greeks thought it calamity TO die
without having seen the Olympian Zeus
by Phidias, and ID. has the same opinion
of those unhappy mortals who are
translated before they have handled his
sumptuous Horace in Hayday's mag
nificen; morocco.
The biOgrapher of Dickens John
Forster had assembled library worthy
of himself, which is not unmeaning
eulogy. 1t was full Of what Lamb calls
Great Natures Stereotypes, the
''eterne" copies that never can grow
stale or unprOductive, and to have spent
a day in it with the host for indicator,
and Dickens for cO-enthusiast. is a
memory forever. Manuscripts of Gold
smith, Swift, johnson, Sterne, Addison.
Burke, Fielding, and Smollett, together
with the original draughts of David
Copperfield," ''Oliver Twist and
dozen other books from the same glow
ing hand and brain, were not to be
handled without a thrill,
L once had the privilege of walking
about in Wordsworth's library, and be-
ing shown by the poet himself many of
the jewels it contained. | recall what
| saw and heard there with kind of
transport even now, although it is more
than twenty-five years since | stood
beside the venerable author of The
Excursion" while ne pointed out in the
margins of his books what Coleridge,
Lamb and Southey had noted there
Lord Houghton's library, also, is one
of the most attractive in England.
especially in poetry and autographs.
Alexander Dyce, the editor of Beau
mont and Fletcher had marvels to
show me in his fine old book rooms in
Gray's Inn, thirty years ago. But per-
haps the most interesting to me of all
the private libraries | have ever seen |
i'm England was the small collection of |
Charles and Mary Lamb, which Edward |
MoXon the publisher unlocked for me |
when | was first in England, before the |
books We're dispersed, a they never |
ought TO have been. Then and there | |
lovingly handled has Kit Marlowe, his
Drummond of Hawthornden, has Dray- |
ton, his COwley and his Burton, |
remember how MOxOn's whole family |
stood around that Life of the Duke of |
Newcastle by his Duchess" and told |
stories of Lambs enthusiasm over the |
book, volume about which he has |
written, mo casket is rich enough, no |
casing sufficiently durable, to honor and |
keep safe such Jewell
One of the selectest household libraries |
in America has lately been left desolate.
Our new minister TO Spain leaves be- |
hind him family of literary magnifi-
cos' at Elmwood not easily to be sur
passed anywhere; and although we are
all proud of the call his country sends
him to aid and honor her in the land of |
Cervantes, we lament the necessary |
absence which now renders it impossi-
bic for our beloved professor to give as
his wOnted address, among my
Books. Prom - CRderJrush.' - Iy j. T. |
Fields.
The Ribbon Fish.
Frank Buckland, in recent letter to
LaRd and Water, says: 81 have received