Morning journal and courier., 1884-11-25
The BibItophfle Jacob.


 The father of all mighty hunters of books,
 the Bibliophile Jacob, has not been well treated in the English press. He is dead, the friend of ell old and good books, and of all who love books, the laborious child of letters, the patriarch of all who manufacture
 scopy." There was no field of literary work
 in which he had not labored during the last
 seventy years; for he began, as mere boy, with an edition of Clement Marot. Such
 was the Adolescence Jacobine, such also was his old age 4 child of the romantic move ment, and of the attempt to return to the middle ages, he perhaps knew more of his subject than all the other romancists to- gether But his novels were not precisely successful, and Balzac laughed at the learning which went into the historical romances. Of the Bibliophile's book of poems-for he
 plunged into poesy like the rest-of "Les Pervenches,' ? we say nothing, because it is as rare as last years perlwlnkles. Ills DO etry, his novels, his plays have gone where the old moons and the old novels go; his big | illustrated volumes on the art and handl- crafts of the Middle Ages are big illustrated volumes They have more knowledge and are better 'sgot up" than their neighbors and rivals, but, after all, they balong to the re-
 zion of the drawing room table. What tho Bibliophile will always live by are his books l upon books, his essays and studies and gos- sip about editions and bindings, and the peo- pie who collect them. Probably some one in France will write anecdotic biography of l the Bibhophile. It should be very amusing, | for he had known every one in his time-the l great poets, noyelists, publishers, biblloma- niacs A couple of volumes containing his scattered essays on books and men would be l one of the pleasantest works. that an amateur ! of books and contemplator of men could de- l sire to possess. The BibHophile also did 1 some sterling literary tasks, especially in his wonderfully complete and adequate chrori- | eles of all that was ever printed or drawn or | engraved about Moliere. The future bi- 1 ographer of Mo1iere will find the Bibiophile | his chief ally, with Tasehereau and Soule. l He was 8 little too con jectural in some of his | other volumes, as in 'La Jeunesse de Mo- (which are, or may be, attributed to that | great writer. He also edited two sets of use | full little books-reprints of contemporary plays or pamphlets more or less distantly 1 concerning the comedian. To enumerate his works, acknowledged or unacknowledged, would be impossible. They were not always 1 acceptable to the moral powers that swayed 1 the police of France For example, the Bib | liophile discovered in the "Bibliotheque l Imperiale" a small volume bound with the ! arms of Marie Antoinette. The book proved to be the catalogue of the queens private li- 1 brary and many of the books were light literature, ? if Mir. James Payn's feelings will
 not be too much outraged by our using that I invidious term. Now almost all bibliograph- CTS have touch of the ghoul. They may resist the ghoul and make him flee from
 them, but he is always tempting them to l publish ancient matters that are Every curi- ous'' in the sense common in booksellers cat alogues. Now it is the suppressed poems
 now the private letters, now the unpublished
 proof sheets of some living man or woman of celebrity; now it is 8 volume that the world has willingly let die. It cannot fairly be said that the Bibhophile was always deal