valuable, was known as an historical personage and an intimate friend of King Charles II.

We may be quite sure that modern collectors do not choose their books but upon some well-known and authoritative system of selection; and therefore, in judging of the importance of any book, it is necessary to ask in the first place, Who was the author? This may require extensive knowledge to answer, or it may not; but it must be replied to satisfactorily, notwithstanding.

Next comes the question, Is the edition a good one? Is it contemporary with the author, or, better still in most cases, original? Is it a mere translation of some foreign work, and, if so, who translated it? To what class does it belong, and is that class of importance? These and other necessary questions have already been enlarged on, and must be answered in every case where it is not known as a fact whether any particular book is of importance or not. 1

The contents of every bookstall of the common order will be found to consist chiefly of technical works, such as scientific books, educational works, and the like. The rule here is that none of these are of any value unless quite new (which is seldom, if ever, the case) or very old. In the former instance they may be worth half of the published price for purposes of reference; in the latter they may be very valuable as curiosities.

I

Thus "The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy," 1747, folio, is valuable, for it is the first edition of Mrs. Glasse's well-known work, and as such, a curiosity. In like manner any of the earlier editions of Cocker's "Arithmetic," or the Marquess of Worcester's "A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions as I can Call to Mind," 1663, 8vo, are also curiosities, and consequently of value. In all these cases the author must be known, and this, of course, brings his book into prominence-a reversal possibly in many cases of the process by which he acquired his reputation, though the result, so far as we are concerned, is the same.

Another rule to be observed is that where a work consists of more than one volume, any one or more volumes out of the complete set is or are not of the same value pro ratá. Thus we know that Grote's "History of Greece," 1884, is complete in twelve volumes, and worth, when well bound, £2 to £3 by auction, or, roughly speaking, about 5s. per volume. Six volumes out of the set would not, however, be worth 30s., nor three volumes, 15s.; for the trouble of collecting those which are missing would militate against the value very considerably. For this reason some collectors delight, as already explained, in "making up their sets. They rank the trouble as a pleasure and an occupation of time which would otherwise

"

hang heavily on their hands. From this point of view the practice may be justified, though the result is hardly ever satisfactory.

A collection of anything, no matter what, is rendered of greater relative importance, and consequently of greater value, as it approaches completion. This rule is well known and often followed by book-collectors, who not infrequently turn their attention to the accumulation of works by a certain author, or of a certain class, thus stamping the collection as a whole with an importance which perhaps cannot be claimed for the majority of the books which compose it. The late Mr. James Crossley, President of the Cheetham Society, though an enthusiastic all-round buyer, got together during the course of his long life a fine assortment of the works of De Foe. These were worth far more in the mass than if the value of each book had been taken singly and added up to form the total. In collecting the "De Imitatione Christi" of Thomas à Kempis, Edmund Waterton had, up to the time of his death, succeeded in bringing together between 1100 and 1200 different editions in various languages, and for some years before his death he had been engaged on a history of the book.

From this point of view a collection of the most worthless books may become an object of interest, assuming only that it approaches completion. In

this, however, as in every other case, it will be found that there will be some editions which will baffle for a time the most active search, and it is these which impress a value on the whole.

The final rule to which it will be necessary to call attention is of great importance, as affording a reason of the prevailing mania for collecting first editions of popular authors. All conditions being equal, a first edition is always of more value than the ones which follow, because in the vast majority of cases it has been revised by the author. So says the collector; and as he is master of the situation-the "verie two eyes," so to speak, of the whole system which regulates the traffic in books-his word is law and must be obeyed. On this rule depends the whole future of the book market, so far as original editions are concerned, and on this will depend the future reputation of many a work now hardly noticed at all. The original editions of Sir Walter Scott's poems and novels have already been instanced, and when the collector is true to the reason which at present he only partially obeys, these and many other works which are at present tossed lightly aside will assume the position to which they are justly entitled. A reason once demonstrated must form part and for ever remain of the spirit of truth.

HE bookworm who values his treasures for themselves alone, and thinks less of their

pecuniary value than of their words; who loves to conjure up the spirits of those who yet speak in the printed pages, and shall perhaps live for all time in the lesson they have taught mankind, to trace their career, and to moralise on their end-such as he, and they are many, will not find their privacy intruded upon in this short essay. It would be an impertinence to seek to regulate their lives or to pry into their

secrets.

Between them and the book-hunter there is a wide difference, so great that it might be impossible to bridge the gulf that divides them even if it were desirable to do so. The one lives in the past, the other is a man of action, and the two have little in common.