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CRAZY BOOK-COLLECTING
OR BIBLIOMANIA
“To all their dated backs he turned you round,
These Aldus printed, those Du Sueil has bound.”
Pope,





RAZY BOOK-COLLECT-
ING OR BIBLIOMANIA,
Showing the great folly of collecting rare
and curious books, first editions, unique
- - and large paper copies, in costly bindings,
etc., by Bóilloud-MERMET, Secretary to the Academy
of Lyons, first published anonymously in 1761, and now
done into English and republished for the perusal and de-
lectation of the members of the Grolier Club of New York
et amicorum. -
*-
tº e-
º ar
| -
| 17 T hd
ead of
dea He
NEW YORK : DUPRAT & CO.
1894



Copyright, 1894, Duprar & Co.
º sº º T
RNZºº
j wº #) |W Williad
ºº: º -
tº Yº Aſh. § º
ſº
- EDITOR'S PREFACE.
º - books? will be a natural question after
studying the title-page to this little volume.
Bollioud-Mermet was born at Lyons in 1709, and
filled the position of Secretary to the Academy of
Lyons from 1736 to 1793, the year of his death. He
wrote several essays on music, literature and other
subjects, and left many manuscripts, but only two
of his works, “ Corruption de la musique française ’’
and “De la Bibliomamie,” have any merit. The latter
work was reprinted in France because all the book col-
lectors against whom the author hurled his objurga-


vi PREAACE.
tions were contemporaries and their names could
readily be identified.
At the period when this essay first appeared, one of
the most luxurious books of the eighteenth century
had just been published, “The Decameron of
Boccaccio,” illustrated by Cochin, Eisen and Gravelot.
It was published in five volumes, 8vo, between the
years 1757 and 1761. This was followed in 1762 by
the Fermiers Généraux edition of La Fontaine's
“Contes et Nouvelles en Vers,”
with illustrations by
Eisen and vignettes by Choffard. It was a superb pub-
lication, and perfect copies in contemporary binding
now sell at auction for from 2,000 to 3,000 francs, while
an exceptional copy, like that from the library of
Madame de Pompadour, bound by Deróme, was re-
cently sold for 17,000 francs.
In 1770, or less than ten years after the publication
of Mermet's essay, appeared Dorat’s “Les Baisers,”
with illustrations by Eisen, and subsequently, in 1773,
“Les Chansons de Laborde,” with illustrations by
Moreau, Le Barbier, Le Bouteux and St. Quentin, in
four volumes, 8vo. These books, for the beauty and
exquisite grace of their illustrations, have not been

PREFACE. vii
surpassed by any artistic publication of the present
century. -
It was undoubtedly the character of the above works,
then issued and in preparation, their luxurious illustra-
tions and consequent high cost that caused Mermet,
who was himself a collector of books, to turn Philis-
tine and denounce the pursuit in which he could no
longer indulge.
Mermet lived to see how little influence his essay
had on the book collectors of his time, among whom
were many bibliomaniacs who merely collected for the
sake of collecting, or from ostentation, or to gain no-
toriety, but among whom were also many book-lovers
who collected and preserved for future generations the
precious volumes which must always secure admira-
tion.
No reasoning or argument will deter the real book-
lover from his charming pursuit. The love of books
and their possession are to him pleasures that the man
who reasons about their utilitarianism cannot feel, and
his very argument is the best proof that he lacks the
feu sacré of the real book-lover.
Like many other men of learning and erudition,

viii AREFACE.
Mermet valued books only in so far as they contributed
to poetry, literature, science, the useful occupations of
men, or to history, morality and religion. The book-
lover values a book as a work of art, a beautiful object
worthy to be collected and preserved. He would no
more think of taking his Aldine Virgil, bound for
Grolier, to the country for summer reading than the
collector of Palissy ware would think of using his
precious dishes on the daily breakfast table.
The collecting of books is pre-eminently the highest
form of collecting, involving as it does more aesthetic
pleasure than either the collecting of paintings, statu-
ary, bric-a-brac, porcelains or tapestry, against the folly
of which no essays have ever been written. A book
appeals to the intelligent collector not only by the art
of the author, be it prose or poetry, but also by the
skill of the printer, the taste of the illustrator, and
finally by the art of the binder; and if to these is added
the charm of a provenance, or a dedication, or a fine
ex-libris, you have a combination of pleasures not to
be found in any other object within the domain of col-
lectorship.
First editions have an irresistible charm for the book-








PREFACE. ix
lover. A first edition brings us nearest to the author;
it is essentially the author's edition; the one on which
his hopes and aspirations are based, and on which his
success with the public depends. All subsequent edi-
tions, though they may have the errors of the first cor-
rected, or new matter added, are practically the pub-
lisher's editions, tainted with mercenary considerations
and of comparatively little or no interest to the col-
lector.
Book-lovers will, therefore, not be influenced by any-
thing Bollioud-Mermet wrote in the eighteenth nor by
what Andrew Lang or any other clever writer may
publish on the so-called “craze” in the nineteenth
century, but will follow their delightful pursuit for the
pleasure it gives them.
Mermet mentions neither the Grangerites nor the
collectors of limited editions on exceptional paper, but
in his day neither of these were in full blast. To cover
the omission of the latter fifty copies of the present
edition have been printed on Japanese paper, but are
not for sale; and as to the Grangerites, we will say
that although no names are mentioned by the author,
there is abundant opportunity for the appropriate

x AREFACE.
insertion of quite a number of portraits of persons to
whom he alludes, and such as can be found without
breaking up or mutilating a single book.
A. D.
April, 1894.


OF
BIBLIOMANIA
THE HAGUE
M.DCC.LXI

|
OF
B I B L I O M A N IA
NOTHING is so difficult as to preserve the laws of
moderation and temperance in the use of things, in
themselves, the most legitimate. In vain does Phil-
osophy cry: “AWe quid mimis,” of all her maxims, this
is the least practised by mankind.
No sooner has he provided for his necessities than
he unconsciously seeks to procure an agreeable abund-
ance, and soon he carries his ambition to the superflu-
ous. Everything excites his cupidity but nothing
satisfies his desires. He collects all sorts of things,
he exhausts every style, and carries to excess every
refinement; and still he is not satisfied.

From this insatiability which the slightest advantage
(3)"
4 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
inflames, this urgency which no boon can content, arise
the various abuses that prevail in the world.
It is for the Moralist to discuss this question in
matters of grave and serious import; we will give our
reflections a narrower scope, and confine ourselves
within the bounds of an Academic thesis, in consider-
ing an excess which, springing from the same source,
has intruded into the republic of letters.
This excess might rather be reckoned among the
absurdities than as a vice; but it is enough that it
carries in its train vanity, luxury and frivolity, to excite
the fear that it may lead to more dangerous conse-
quences. Let us endeavor to paint it in its true colors,
and it will readily be granted that to repress it, a just
censure should be exercised.
It was declared long ago that “everything is abased,
the best things most of all: ” Optimi pessima corrup-
£io. Literature does not escape this fate. Study which
should enlighten and purify the human mind does not
always secure it from the caprices to which it may be
subject. Would it be believed that reading, the best
means of nourishing the soul and training the inclina-
tions, should so rarely and so feebly produce those
-


OF BIBLIOMANIA. 5
blessed effects, or that the love of good books, so
noble, so useful, when wisely indulged in, could de-
generate into unbridled passion, and become the ob-
ject of a fanciful devotion?
Nevertheless this abuse is but too real, too common.
Never have there been so many books of all kinds, in
all forms, and never have there been so few readers
whose true aim is serious study and solid instruction.
In society, simple amusement appears to be the sole
object. Reading designed as a preservative from error
and ignorance, becomes at best but an antidote to
weariness.
So greatly has the use of books been perverted that
these monuments of learned antiquity, these precious
collections of the productions of genius once intended
to render immortal the true principles of science, to
inspire a correct taste in literature, to facilitate labor,
to guide the judgment, to exercise the memory, to
give growth to talents and virtues, are now but mere
curios, bought at great cost, displayed with ostentation,
and preserved without any idea of making use of them.
We see men incapable of applying themselves to a
systematic and reflective reading, men, by a defective
ºr
-

6 OF BIBLIOMAAVIA.
education debarred from the advantages of study,
whose very occupations deprive them of leisure and
taste, who none the less make pretensions to form
libraries.
Others more capable of making a good use of books,
heap up volumes of every kind greatly beyond the
number they need and the extent of their acquirements.
Some not content with uselessly augmenting the
number, pride themselves on collecting such as are
most choice and rare, discouraged neither by the dif-
ficulty of the search nor the exorbitance of the price.
Finally, others conceive the odd design of bringing
together every work composed in a fantastic and some-
times even a licentious style.
In each of these different tastes it is easy to perceive
a sort of distorted fancy, a disease which has its
peculiar symptoms, its spasms, its complications, its
delirium and its dangers. -
To conclude, to possess collections of books with
neither the capacity nor the will to read and to study,
is a strange Mania, a blind ostentation. To heap up
volumes without a use for them, without discrimina-
tion, is an absurd vanity, an idle extravagance. To

of BIBLIoMANIA. 7
collect all those esteemed for their scarcity, the rare
beauty of the edition or their magnificent binding, is
an excess of luxury, an inordinate love of the curious
or a ruinous prodigality. In a word, to prefer those
whose only merit consists in the grotesque oddity of
their contents, or the possibility of injury to good
morals and the precepts of religion, is either whimsi-
cality, caprice, wrong-headedness or libertinism.
A regular consideration of the details of these
various excesses will set them in their true light. It
will show clearly that the error in this matter consists
in not knowing how to make a good selection or a
good use of books.
-

PART I.
GOD forbid that, while seeking to depict that taste
so little understood and to paint it in its proper colors,
I should, in any way, do an injury to the advancement
of study, to the beneficial effects of reading and of
emulation, to the laudable desire for learning and self-
culture, to the esteem due to good books and the talent
of knowing and collecting them and the care of their
preservation, and finally to the art, as ingenious as
admirable, of printing, which has attained so high
a degree of perfection.
To combat an abuse is to enhance the merit of the
object abused ; it is to vindicate its excellence against
the rash attempts of whosoever dares debase or distort
it. With this view I design to examine Bibliomania
and to unmask its various characteristics.
The first that presents itself for criticism and offends
against reason is that of an unlearned man, without
talents, whose only aim is to parade a collection of

(8)
OF BIBLIOMAWIA. 9
books which his want of capacity renders useless to
him. Let us contemplate this object as remarkable as
singular. Let us reclaim, for the honor of literature,
these treasures of erudition which profane hands are
ever gathering without knowing either their value or
their proper use.
Do we not daily see men utterly incapable of appli-
cation and lacking all learning collecting great libraries
of which the display, so out of character in their homes,
proves that they have more money than brains, and
that superfluity of wealth can never fill the void of
ignorance? This is no chimera that I propose to
attack, it is a very real absurdity of which the ex-
amples are but too common.
A writer of the fourteenth century once said that
ignorant amateurs imagine they know all that their
books contain. If a clever book is named in their
presence, they at once exclaim that they possess it. It
is as though it were the same thing to have a book in
their book-case as to hold the contents in their head
and their memory.
They boast of possessing an immense number of
volumes. I would infinitely prefer to see them pos-
-----
-

Io OF BIBLIOMANIA.
sessed of genius, talents and learning; and what is
better still, of good sense, simplicity and virtue.
These, however, are not, like books, for sale, and if
they were I doubt if they would find many purchasers.
Few are lovers of learning or wisdom; all they care
for is the book and its cover.
It is, indeed, a monstrous vanity and marked error
to aspire to the honors of erudition on the score of a
careless jumble of books of which they have no claim
to enjoy either the knowledge or the use. Does not the
contemplation of these illiterate Bibliomaniacs suggest
the idea that it would be enough for them to buy
out the shop of a book-seller to dub themselves
learned men 2 Can the public be duped by such an
assumption ?
No It is not to be denied that the favors of the
Muses are rarely found in the same locality as the
favors of Plutus. Men of letters, aware as they are of
this incompatibility, have, at any rate, the satisfaction
of knowing that blind Fortune, powerful as she is in
this world, cannot confer the gift of knowledge on her
favorites, nor deprive of it those she discards. Were
immense wealth the only means of becoming wise and

OF BIBLIOMANIA. II
virtuous, surely the rich would excel all other men in
wisdom and virtue. Experience shows us almost
always the reverse of this.
It is, therefore, idle merely to accumulate books; the
array of literature imposes only on the vulgar mind;
it renders those who pretend to it contemptible.
The surest means of acquiring consideration through
books is, not the mere possession, but the knowledge
of them, the profitable reading of them. Otherwise
what glory would there be in bringing home from the
book-sellers whole sets of books and keeping them in
the body, so to speak, as do the shelves of the library
on which they are arranged?
As well might one born blind devote himself to the
collecting of paintings and expect you to regard him as
a connoisseur of art. What would be thought of one
who without being a musician or wishing to become
one should adorn his apartments with every instrument
of music and turn his house into a dwelling for a lute-
maker? This figure, absurd as it may appear, is
neither new nor strained. Ausonius employed it in
ridicule of an ignoramus possessed with a mania for
books. In derision he addresses to him the following
epigram:

I2 OF BIBL/OMAAVL4.
Emptis quod libris tibi bibliotheca referda est,
Doctum et grammaticum te, Philomuse, putas.
Płoc genere et chordas, et plectra et barbita conde :
Omnia mercatus, cras cytharadus eris.
Ausonius, Epig. 44. .
It is a comic sight to watch a Bibliomaniac to
whom time and money are a burden, who, to amuse his
idleness and relieve the weariness of having nothing to
do and nothing to know, takes up his post in the shops
of the book-sellers, carries his ennui from one shop to
another, daily attends book-sales, examines all critically
without perhaps being acquainted with any, bids them
up, not like an intelligent amateur, but like a rich man
ready to acquire by the weight of his gold, volumes for
which he has no use, while he prevents their acquisi-
tion by a good judge who needs them. Returning
home this greedy and insatiable “bidder-up " makes it
his first care to find a place for his new books: then
leaves them, having, perhaps, touched them for the
last time. - -
Could these books speak to the ear as readily as

they do to the eye, what complaints of their fate might
OF BIBLIOMAAVIA. I3
they not impart? What regrets would they not express
for their long sentence to so odious an inactivity, to so
base and disgraceful a slavery? This is the thought of
Petrarch. He says, addressing one of these tyrannical
and blind possessors: Egregios multos in vinculis
tenes libros, qui sã forsitan eruperent et loqui possent,
adjudicium te privati carceri's evocarent. AVunc ſlent
taciti multa guidem, nominatim illud, quod persafe
tumus iners affluit avarus, quibus egent studiosi.
If envy be ever allowable, it is doubtless so in the
case in question. How many students there are to
whom fortune has denied the means of procuring ne-
cessary books On the other hand, how many rich men
there are who acquire them without knowledge and re-
tain them without profit ! These are the Tantaluses
who can never quench their thirst though surrounded
by water, misers who amass treasures they can never
enjoy, blind men who seek for objects they can never
behold.
We are told that Louis XI, King of France, hearing
that an illiterate man had acquired a choice and exten-
sive library, exclaimed: “Behold the living picture of
a hunchback who carries on his back a superfluity of
nature that he never can look upon.”

I4 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
This absurdity, so easy to note and to reprehend in
others, is, like every human excess, absolutely ignored
by its victims. The unlettered man prides himself on
what renders him ridiculous; he ostentatiously displays
to the curious his literary treasures. He seems to de-
light in exhibiting the Muses captive to his blind dom-
ination. The more he holds them in bondage the less
worthy he is to cultivate them.
A connoisseur, visiting the library of a monkish com-
munity who made no use of it, noticed that every book
in it was fastened by a little iron chain. Surprised at
this novel contrivance he recited to them these lines:
“Aſaud secus ac duro fugitivos carcere servat
Vestra cafematos bibliotheca libros.
Quid mirum, si mulla viget doctrina, colendi
Doctrinae auctores hic ubi vincla gerunt?”
If it be not vanity that leads to the unnecessary col-
lection of books, can it be the desire to adorn an apart-
ment? Since when have these cartularies of science
become properties to rank as furniture? Is it not
to reverse the order of things, thus to turn from their
original purpose those which are the most precious and

OF BIBLIOMAWIA. I5
the most useful ? It is, however, a subversion not un-
common in this world.
He who by commerce or financial operations has
amassed a great fortune and acquired by purchase a
title of nobility desires besides to appear a man of uni-
versal tastes. Books, pictures, engravings, costly vases,
elaborate gardens, cabinets of natural history, collec-
tions of medals, nothing comes amiss to him, all seems
within his province. At the same time it is easy to
see that he has no other title than his wealth to the
possession of all these treasures.
La Bruyère, so clever in his description of characters,
has not omitted the above. Let us hear what he says
on the subject: “A man,” says he, “tells me he has a
library. I wish to see it. I go to this man, who re-
ceives me in a house where, on the very threshold, I
sink faint from the odor of the black morocco in which
all his books are bound. In vain, to rally me, he
shrieks into my ear that they are gilt-edged, adorned
with bands of gold, choice editions, enumerating the
best in due order, says that his gallery is crowded and
in some places even painted to simulate real books
arranged on the shelves so as to deceive the eye; he

16 OF BIBL/OMAAVIA.
adds that he never reads, that he never even sets foot
in that gallery, that he will go there to please me; I
thank him for his courtesy, but I desire no more than
he, to visit the tannery that he calls a library.”
We should not, therefore, be surprised at seeing
men of this stamp buy books by the yard, without refer-
ence to their quality or contents, but with the sole aim
of adorning their shelves or covering the empty wains-
coting of their saloons. It is as though these precious
storehouses of thought intended to supply the mind did
not deserve to be distinguished from purely material
objects; as if a library were but a piece of tapestry.
This abuse was rife even in the time of Seneca.
How can we forgive this ostentation, says the Philos-
opher, in those destitute of the first elements of human
learning, who employ in the decoration of their dwell-
ings what is proper for the enlightenment of the soul
and the adornment of the mind; who regard as mere
furniture what should be preserved to furnish the mem-
ory, to give clearness to the judgment; who collect the
writings of Greek and Latin Authors without knowledge
of those tongues, or of the contents of those writings;
who, incapable of assimilating the profound thoughts

OF BIBLIOMANIA. 17
preserved in these books, gaze on the backs and finely-
gilt titles of the volumes so artfully and symmetrically
arranged on their book-shelves?
What can be bestowed on such pictures but the
varnish of ridicule due to every connoisseur falsely so-
called, who vaingloriously affects to be what he is
not, and to esteem that of which he knows nothing?
A Greek epigram adds one trait more which the noble
and severe delicacy of our language forbids me to
translate.
But if, from these collections of books so absurdly
devoted to ostentation, we pass to those furnishing
more appropriately the libraries of our men of letters,
we meet with other excesses. We find heaps of
volumes uselessly multiplied—a marvel of superfluity
which might convey a just reproach even to the student
and to the true connoisseur in this art.

PART II.
IN declaiming against the abuse of immense collec-
tions of books, I do not refer to the libraries of princes,
norto public libraries, which belong to large communi-
ties. These are exceptions. That which is the glory
of kings is often a folly in subjects. For a sovereign
nothing is more honorable than such an institution;
nothing marks more conspicuously his zeal for the
public welfare or his own magnificence. -
Admittedly, communities, being composed of men
differing as widely in acquirements as in character,
should possess ample collections of books of every kind.
What a fruitful source for the advancement of science
are these repositories of literature when their doors
are opened to those who unite to natural talent the
taste for study and the love of work, but who lack the
sunshine of fortune to fructify these precious germs
In these storehouses of literature abundance ceases to
be an evil, multiplicity becomes a necessity. How


(18)
OF BABLZOMAAVA;4. 19
have kings immortalized themselves by the libraries
they have founded !
Osymandyas, King of Egypt, created the first one
mentioned in ancient annals. On it was seen this
inscription in big letters:
Wox7; tarpsiov,
Medica animae officina.
Tºtolemy Philadelphus, with the assistance of De-
metrius Phalereus, founded one in the city of Alexan-
thria, in which, according to several historians, the
volumes amounted to the number of 700,000. The
greater portion was destroyed by fire in Caesar's war
on the sons of Pompey. -
Pisistratus, Tyrant of Athens, also established a
very considerable library which he gave to the public.
The first known at Rome was carried thither by
Paulus Emilius. Plutarch states that this great gen-
eral, having vanquished Perseus, king of Macedonia,
scorned the treasures which were his by right of con-
quest, but did not disdain to seize as his booty the

books possessed by that prince.
Lucullus, that famous Roman, who, by his wealth,
his luxury and liberality, presumed to emulate kings,
2O OF BIBL/OMANZA.
made himself illustrious by founding a library, which
was open to both citizens and strangers. They went
thither in crowds and formed a sort of Academy.
All know the libraries of the Vatican and the Louvre,
the most noted and ancient in the world that are still
in existence. Princes and nobles have vied with one
another in consecrating these monuments of learning
to the public good. Paris contains splendid specimens.
This noble city owes a part of its grandeur to the
different libraries within its bounds, and entrance to
them is accorded to the inquiring.
But this generous magnificence, so befitting the
grandeur of our kings, so honorable to the commun-
ities who have emulated them, is not practicable for
private individuals. The number of books necessary
for each citizen is limited. All that exceeds, becomes
superfluity or overweening ambition.
No one can learn everything, nor boast that he knows
everything. Where can the man be found equally
versed in every walk of literature ? Providence has
divided His gifts. It is a part of His wisdom to dis-
pense talents with economy, to bestow on each person
a certain portion, so as to render men dependent on one


OF BIBLIOMANIA. 2I
another; to maintain by this reciprocal dependence
the commerce of society; to prevent the learned man
and the philosopher from becoming self-sufficient, to
confine them to their own proper sphere and to keep
them from trusting too implicitly to their own lights
and opinions.
With this design, to some it has been given to pene-
trate the secrets of nature, to measure space, to search
the depths of earth and sea, to ascend even to the study
of the course and destiny of the heavenly bodies, to
apply to useful and curious purposes all the springs of
mechanism; or to study the structure of the human
body, to establish a correspondence between the fluids
and solids by the use of medicaments, or by surgical
operations; or to study the laws, the rules of civilized
life, the rights and duties of society; or to meditate
on the mind of man, to examine his being, the nature
of his soul, his passions, all the motives that actuate
him whether in morals or politics.
Others whose minds are adapted to functions still
more lofty rise in sublime flight to the knowledge of
the Author of the Universe, not only to admire Him in
His works, but to contemplate Him in Himself, in His
immortal attributes, in His infinite perfections.

22 OF BIBL/OMA/VIA.
To some is given the power of writing well, to others
the art of speaking well; the power of subduing the
soul or of captivating the heart by the magic of elo-
quence or of poetry. These devote themselves to the
study of languages, they are citizens of all ages, of every
country; those tread with rapid and firm step the vast
field of History: their critical researches lay all anti-
quity under contribution. Others, again, cultivate the
useful and the agreeable arts. These arts have a com-
mon origin, but many branches. Their perfection
requires for each style a special talent.
Literature is a republic in which each fills his partic-
ular office. He is free to choose what best suits his
natural taste, his genius and his education; but once
his choice is made he must abide by it unchangeably
if he hopes for success. He who would know and
embrace every branch of study will fail in his under-
taking, he will do no good work in the world, since
in the effort to skim the surface of everything he will
enter deeply into nothing.
Of what advantage, then, to a private individual is
it to elaborate collections on every subject, since the
portion he can enjoy is so limited 2 I like to learn the

OF BIBL/OMANIA. 23
character of a man by the inspection of his books.
Nothing seems more out of place than theological
treatises in the library of a mathematician, or works
on physics in that of a rhetorician. This multiplicity,
this medley of books distracts the attention, burdens
without enriching the memory, dazzles without enlight-
ening the judgment, retards the progress of study and
destroys the plans originally marked out.
Since it is not possible to read every book that can be
obtained, we should restrict ourselves to those which we
have time to read. “Cum legere mont possi's quantume
habueris, sat est habere quantum legas.” It is not the
accumulated quantity that makes the learned man, it
is the well-chosen quality.
It has been said, “Beware of disputing with the
man of a single book”—“Cave aſ homime umius libri.”
He is so full fed with it, so impregnated with it, that
he becomes formidable to all who would argue with
him on the subject of which it treats.
On the contrary, he who reads a little of everything,
who essays every species of learning and sips of every
sweet, like one who has partaken of bad food, is more
likely to exhaust than to increase his powers. As well-

24 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
directed reading leads to instruction, so that which is
too diversified and ill-understood leads to depravation
of mind. The soul, wearied by a complication of
ideas, experiences, like an overloaded stomach, a posi-
tive disgust more injurious even than want of food.
He who would reach a certain goal will never arrive
at it if he wanders into every by-road, if he enters
every new path he finds. It is, after a fashion, to live
nowhere when one desires to live everywhere. By
constant excursions one never finds a fixed abiding
place. He is like those travellers who are on a pil-
grimage all through life. They find hospices by the
way, but never a fixed habitation.
We might also compare those who skim over books
to men who run to everybody for advice but put confi-
dence in no one, who have many counsellors, but never
a friend. Apuleius calls such “Curiosulos,” and Cicero
terms them “Pſelluones librorum.” They course over
the whole field of literature by a rapid and superficial
perusal without pausing to make a good choice.
With the human mind it is somewhat as with the
vegetable world: it gains nothing by too much trans-
planting. We must not therefore be surprised if the

of BIRLIoMAWIA. 25
possessors of extensive libraries are those who read the
least. How can a man, overborne by the burden of
his volumes, have time for it? He has leisure for no
other reading than that of catalogues. His life would
be too short to learn merely the titles of all his books,
the names of their authors, their printers, and the dates
of the different editions. Such a study plainly excludes
all others.
What would be thought of a General in the army
who only knew his soldiers by name or sight, who
might lose the battle by his over-confidence in the vast
number of the combatants, often a disadvantage, in-
stead of selecting with discretion the most intelligent
and bravest?
We may say the same of the man of letters. His
mistake is to think that he makes a new conquest in
the dominion of literature whenever he adds to his
library a few, perhaps, useless volumes.
But some of these Bibliomaniacs may say: “I buy
only such books as I can use, which are necessary to
my profession or connected with my researches.”
From this might we not consider this man limited in

his desires, moderate in his tastes? Not at all. He
26 OF BIBLIOMAWIA.
may not, in fact, collect every kind of book; he restricts
himself to the special quality that suits him; but in
this very quality he has opened an immense field. He
procures every treatise that relates to it: nothing is
left out, and the collection becomes very extensive.
He who gives himself up to polite literature seeks
everything that pertains to it. Grammar, Oratory
Poetry, Philology, Criticism, History, Polygraphy,
“all is fish that comes to his net.” To these may be
added the various editions of each book. He must
have the complete series of every printer. A single one
wanting to the collection would drive him to despair.
That beloved book, the idol of his soul, the object of
such solicitude, of such eager seeking, is not forth-
coming. He has pursued the quest for twenty years
without success. How hard this is. The lack of
this one object may destroy the charm of all that he
has already won. It is intolerable to see his collection
spoiled by one so slight a missing link.
It is also desirable to collect all that has been written
by authors ancient and modern. It behoves him to
have Ciceros in every form and Horaces in every style;

some copies with the text alone; others with notes;
OF BIBL/OMANIA. 27
the variorums, ad usums, Farnabes, Burmans; others
translated into different languages.
Above all he must collect every dictionary, every
newspaper, commentary, extract and abridgment.
Thanks to the taste of our times, the press daily issues
new ones. Which will he choose, large, small, manuals
or pocket editions? There are plenty to choose from
on every subject. What do I say? To choose from ?
Choice is only for those who seek what they need, who
desire what they can use. Bibliomaniacs are more
generous and bolder; they do not select, they buy all.
Verily, do you call it restricting yourself to what is
needful when you extend necessity to an immeasurable
proportion? Such insatiability is the palpable symptom
of a diseased mind. The countless books that inundate
the world to-day tend but too surely to aggravate the
disorder.
How prodigious is the number of books in every
style and on every subject which, under the seductive
appearance of novelty, contain only constant repetitions
of old things; sometimes these appear in the volumi-
nous proportions bestowed on them by some indefati-

gable annotator, sometimes with the meagreness and,
28 OF BIBLIOMAAVIA.
often obscure, brevity of summaries and epitomes. In
these the text is treacherously mutilated, in those the
comments are superfluous.
Examine these translations, bristling with different
readings and idle observations; explanations more
diffuse and obscure than the text itself; huge compila-
tions, the worthy product of a mere machine, the work
of writers with neither taste nor genius.
We must acknowledge it: all such works which
originate in the vanity of authors, and which are laid
open by their folly to the pitiless severity of criticism;
all the works which the bookseller makes it his business
to offer so artfully under different forms are so many
snares laid for public curiosity.
How often does a pompous title, “a notice to the
reader,” excite the most deceitful hopes? What
dupes have been made by the attractive promises made
in prefaces, the announcement of “Editions cor-
rected and enlarged,” and all the metamorphoses of
typography. To expose such misleading tricks would
require an elaborate treatise. We will confine our-
selves to a few reflections more relevant to our subject.
It is still a moot question whether the invention of





OF BIBLIOMAAVIA. 29
printing has contributed more to the progress of letters
and the perfection of ethics than to their injury. This
is not the place to discuss it nor to answer it; it is suffi-
cient for us to say that the number of books is immense,
the number of good books very small.
Let us cast a rapid glance over their different species
and we shall perceive that if some are the work of
truth, reason, knowledge, wisdom and virtue, many
others are the product of ignorance or error, or even of
impiety. How many there are of which nearly the
whole must be pruned away if we would suppress
whatever offends the sanctity of religion, the rights of
nature, the laws of equity, purity of morals, the truth
of history, the maxims of sound polity and right
government, in a word, all the rules of sense and good
tastel
What can we hope and what may we not fear when
we resolve to collect and to read everything indiscrimi-
nately? From this crude and unnatural medley of the
hasty or frivolous productions which human genius
scatters in its erratic flight, what abides with the greedy
and careless reader but a confused mass of ideas much
less likely to enrich the mind than to trouble or cor-
rupt the imagination ?






30 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
t
Ideas which by the singularity of their juxtaposition
create mutual injury; which clash at their very birth;
and by these shocks destroy each other and finally
vanish like clouds scattered by the tempest.
They are false pictures which leave in the mind
only impressions of falsehood or perplexity A chaos
vast and dark with opposing sentiments, contradictions,
doubts, prejudices, opinions and systems in which it is
as dangerous as difficult to disentangle the good from
the bad, the true from the false.
Such are the usual effects produced by license of
thought or the itching for excessive authorship, and,
by a necessary consequence, such are also the results
of an excessive passion for books of which a vain
superfluity is the least of the dangers to be dreaded.
Endeavor then to select the best from the mass so
as to apply them to a reasonable use, and give to them
the esteem which is their due, and with a glance of
scorn at the others, say with the Philosopher: “Eheu /
quantis non indigeo / " Far from envying this super-
fluity, a totally opposite sentiment should be cherished.
Yes, we must pity those who seek this excessive
affluence, regarding them as invalids difficult to pre-


OF BIB / WOMAN/A. 3I
scribe for. Could one feel otherwise for a man who
by painful exertions, fills with thousands of volumes,
apartments which would suffice to shelter three fami-
lies? In the midst of this superabundance he seems
still possessed with a thirst for books. He resembles
a dropsical patient whose thirst is unquenchable, a
miser who never wearies of accumulating what he
cannot enjoy and who harshly refuses to others any
participation in his possessions.
The Bibliomaniac often carries to an extreme point
this jealousy of possession. The more he accumulates
his acquisitions, the less he enjoys and the less dis-
posed is he to share them with those who would make
a good use of his superabundance. Moreover, it is a
generosity which he should be ashamed to deny him-
self, as its exercise would in no degree impoverish him.
But this is a principle appealing little to a man less
jealous of the use of books than of their possession.
He may be characterized as a Bibliotaph. In truth,
so great is his fear that his books should be brought
to the light of day that he builds for them a species of
tomb in the heart of his library.
What then is the aim of this man but to gratify an
;


32 OF BIBL/OMANIA.
insane fancy whence little good results to himself while
it prevents him from gratifying others ? For whom has
he erected this literary edifice the different materials
of which are so costly in research, anxiety and money?
He knows not. “Thesaurizat et ignorat cut congre-
gabit ea.” It may be for an heir who cares not for such
an inheritance except to restore it to its original form by
converting, as quickly as possible, these books into
hard cash.
Then will these collections, so carefully gathered,
be scattered hither and thither, never to meet again,
handed over to almost as many new masters as
there are various books. In vain has their former
possessor inscribed his name above the titles, and per-
haps adorned the frontispiece with the insignia of his
rank, for all these inscriptions of ex-libris and ex-bibli-
otheca will but last long enough to publish his vanity
and folly. Then they will be straightway effaced.
Other absurdities also offer themselves to our notice.
As no taste is so decided as never to change, no pas-
sion so dominant as never to yield to the charms of
self-interest, it is easy to discover fresh abuses which
may spring from the undue love of books.
We see even literary men who disgrace themselves

OF BIBL/OMAAWIA. 33
by a senseless inconstancy or a mercenary trading.
Some, soon tiring of the books they possess, feel only
an attraction for those they have not, and are forever
making exchanges. Ever-changing whims lead them
to sell the useful cheaply, while they pay dearly for
the useless. Their library is a moving tableau in
which one can never find an object the second time.
Others, more prudent, but too eager for sordid gain,
seek opportunities of obtaining books at a small cost.
They take advantage of the ignorance or the necessi-
ties of the seller in the mercenary hope of afterwards
finding an unskilled or too eager purchaser, and by
this base traffic to secure a big profit to themselves.
What was once a means of mental culture thus be-
comes a commodity to gratify their avarice.
O rare and noble talent which converts the Philos-
opher into a huckster of books “Pulchra same ars
quae de philosopho librarium facit.” Hateful com-
merce, disgraceful traffic, just object of public scorn,
extreme cupidity which drives probity to buy and
degrades the art of the connoisseur below the condi-
tion of the meanest.
But let us on, and prepare fresh colors to paint other
characters of Bibliomania.
-
º

PART III.
THE love of books degenerating into a passion is an
inexhaustible source of caprices and refinements. The
mere number, indefinitely multiplied, does not suffice
to satisfy the vast desires of the human heart, their
very quality must be subtilized.
Fashion, that fickle and imperious mistress of the
world, here, as elsewhere, exercises absolute sway:
luxury, fastidiousness, lavishness, have found their way
into the very sanctuary of the Muses; the contagion
has invaded every avenue to it.
If we enter the library of one of these fashionable
Bibliomaniacs, he will display for our admiration every-
thing rare or exquisite that the press has produced;
beautiful editions of the Aldi, Plantin, Vascozan,
Elzevir, Vitré, Mabre-Cramoisy. Especially does he
prize those which date from the fifteenth century, the
period of the invention of the art of printing.
True it is that these books, estimable for their con-
(34) .*
*
|
-
-
-
-
º
-



OF BIBLIOMAAWIA. 35
tents, famous for their antiquity, above all, admirable
for the beauty of the paper and the clearness of the
type, possess intrinsic merit, a value not wholly ficti-
tious. But an amateur who “refines,” as Cicero de-
fines him by the epithet “acrem amatorem,” will
seek to enhance their value by accidental attributes
which his subtle taste discovers and exaggerates.
Moreover, he thinks he adorns his library when he
adds to it books that may be bad in themselves, but
which he has bought, and often at an exorbitant
price, simply because they are unique, or extremely
rare. He is persuaded that the advantage of possess-
ing a book, no matter what its nature, if there be no
other like it, makes it worth its weight in gold. Never-
theless, this copy on which he prides himself has,
perhaps, become rare merely because it is the only one
which has escaped the base uses to which such works
are generally applied, or because some unforeseen
accident has caused the destruction of the rest of the
edition.
What an error so to misplace one's esteem, not
reflecting that the best books are the most common;
that the interest of the public, as well as that of the

*36 OF BIBL/OMANIA.
bookseller, will not allow such to die out; that it is
absurd to set store by such as become curious merely
because their re-publication has been neglected.
So it is with certain manuscripts preserved through
mere caprice. Of course there are many precious ones
in existence, some of which, unique of their kind, are
religiously guarded in our famous libraries or embellish
those of kings. What hosts there are of others which
the press never cares to draw from their obscurity, and
of which the scarcity can only be attributed to the
contempt in which they are held ! As says Voltaire in
his Temple of Taste:
* L'amas clerietta: et bizarre
De vieux manuscrits vermoulus,
Ef la szette 27tuttle et rare
D'écrivains qu'om n'a jamais lus.”
The researches of our treasure hunters do not end
here. They want books in the original binding.
Their admiration is specially attracted to those which
have many of their leaves still uncut, the edges having
eluded the trimming knife of the binder. A defect to
the eye of sense becomes to them a notable advantage.

OF BIBLIOMANIA. 37
It is a real merit in a book which is thenceforth scrupu-
lously preserved even at the expense of its appropriate
use; for it would be murder in the judgment of these
dainty Bibliomaniacs to cut and separate those leaves.
As well might one say that it lowers the price of a
book to put it in a condition to be read.
What shall we think of their pronounced taste for
wide margins and editions on large paper? A certain
width was originally assigned to the margin for the
advantage it gave of frequently rebinding the same
volumes, so as to render them more durable. Soon,
however, caprice, fertile in innovations, transgressed
these bounds, and the motive of utility gave place to
an invention of fancy.
Those, however, who read for instruction or even
for pleasure only, seem right in preferring books in
which the subject-matter fills the most space. The
Bibliomaniac would fain persuade such readers that
their taste is barbarous. Modern, cultivated taste re-
quires that the pages should present as much empty
space as letter-press.
Of this we may see a striking example in an edition
of the “Institutes of Justinian,” on which an extraor-

38 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
dinary width of margin has been given. Bah, it is a
singular device to sell blank paper at an exorbitant
price
What contrivances have been invented to create
something new, something marvellous, or to excite
public curiosity ? For the printing of certain choice
books, letters so minute have been employed that the
mere sight of them tries the eye and they could not
be really perused without risk of becoming blind:
characters so diminutive that the type could not resist
the force of the press. As a consequence the editions
have been limited to a very few copies which have be-
come both scarce and costly." This is another triumph
for our Bibliomaniacs.
The taste for extremes springs from least to greatest.
Some have printed in several volumes, folio, books
which had theretofore appeared in a single 12mo or
24mo volume. For instance, “The Imitation of
* Phaedri Fabulae, et Pub. Syrii Sententiae. Parisiis, e Typo-
graphia regia, 1729, in-32.
Quint. Horatii Flac. opera. E. Typ. reg., 1733, in-32.
M. Tul. Ciceronis de Amicitia dialogus. Parisiis, Bauche, 1750,
in-32.
M. Tul. Ciceronis Cato major. Parisiis, Barbou, 1758, in-32.
-

OF BIBL/OMA WIA. 39
Christ,” printed at the Louvre in large size and type,
is a mere curiosity for the library !! I doubt if any
one would pursue his devotional reading in a book so
cumbrously enlarged, and which for the convenience
of the reader should always remain in the class of
small manuals.
Another, “La Fontaine's Fables,” designed for the
young, was first published in one small volume; but
the love of oddity and magnificence has brought forth
a new edition in four volumes, folio, on which art has
been so Javishly employed that its acquisition is inter-
dicted to the many.”
The merits of this work were well known; this tre-
mendous metamorphosis adds nothing to the fame of
the author or the estimation in which his writings are
held. It serves simply to show the devices to which
typographers are forced to resort to gratify the taste
of amateurs.
* De Imitatione Christi, libri IV. Parisiis, e Typographia
regia, 1640, in-fol.
* Fables choisies, Paris, Saillant, 1755, avec des figures sur les
dessins d'Oudri, gravées par Cochin. Charta parva, magna et
maxima.




40 OF BIBL/OMANIA.
These remarks interfere in no degree with the
praises due to the talent of artists whose skill adds so
greatly to the beauty of the masterpieces of literature;
but such works are only for princes or nobles. The
grievance is that in this case, as in so many others, a
private individual should presume, in matters of taste,
to indulge so foolish an ambition.
To attract attention the luxury of art is constantly
displayed under different aspects. Engraving lends
its aid to printing, and the two inventions leave noth-
ing to be desired in the ornamentation of books. They
continually offer new temptations to the cultured taste
of the Bibliophile.
In proportion as an artist becomes eminent by his
genius, fresh eagerness is displayed by these dilet-
tanti for all that comes from his hands. Embellish-
ments have been so lavished that books have almost
become mere collections of pictures; objects calcu-
lated to please the eye rather than to improve the
mind. Allegorical frontispieces, portraits of the au-
thors, vignettes, tail-pieces, initial letters, emblems,
cartouches and symbolic borders fill the work. -
The new edition of the “Tales of Boccaccio,” very

OF BIBL/OMAN/A. 4I
recently published, show how far the extravagant art
of the graver can go. It is not a little surprising that
such efforts should not be reserved for objects more
worthy of so stately a decoration."
To these refinements of taste may be added the rich
ness and elegance of binding, where everything displays
sumptuous ornament. “Ambitiosa ornamenta.” The
covers of books shine with the polish of marble, the
variegation of jasper; sometimes they are of tree-calf,
enriched with ornaments and bands of gold; some-
times of red or green morocco, adorned with rich
dentelle. -
Blue and gold are lavishly employed; nothing is
spared, either for the backs or the borders or in the
marbling of the edges. Books in these styles charm
the eye, please the taste, and are the delight of their
owners, but the cost of their splendid attire often ex-
ceeds their intrinsic value.
If they are valuable in themselves, does it, in any
degree, increase their excellence or utility thus to over-
load them with extraneous ornament? Shall I be bet-
* Décaméron italien et françois. Londres (Paris), 1757, 5 vol.
in-8°, avec figures par Gravelot, Cochin, Eisen et autres.

42 OF BIBL/OMANIA.
º
º
ter informed in the principles of philosophy or the im-
portant facts of history; more alive to the impetuous
or insinuating bursts of eloquence; more moved by
the charms of poetry, because I find them in volumes
glittering with ostentatious brilliancy?
Shall I better appreciate the works of Demosthenes,
Virgil or Bossuet because they are wrapped in a daz-
zling robe 2 Not so. These noble writers are ever to
be preferred in a garb more simple and unassuming,
and, turning away from these marvels of art, which I
fear to handle lest I should mar their beauty, I take up
books which I can enjoy and can read at my ease.
He that proposes instruction or even pleasure as the
aim of his reading will never, like a child, amuse him-
self with books whose chief attraction lies in minia-
ture copies of art.
When we speak of these objects of curiosity or
pleasure, are we not tempted to call them “jewels,”
“masterpieces of art,” rather than books? Like jewels
they must be handled with a sort of respect, must only
be shown to challenge admiration, must be carefully
guarded, with the firm determination never to usé
them. Some other name should, therefore, be found
for them.
--

OF BIBL/OMAN/A. 43
But if beneath this tinsel, this bark of meretricious
ornament, they are either mediocre or frivolous, what
appellation can we give them 2 Should we not be
compelled to regard this abuse as an evidence of con-
summate depravation of mind P
To pretend to conceal the defects or the mediocrity
of a work by covering it with an imposing exterior;
to seek to set it off by the perfection of an edition or
the excellence of its engravings, is to labor in vain.
The most cursory examination destroys the illusion,
and we are no more deceived than if we beheld vile
slaves crowned with flowers, or a courtesan clad in the
robes and wearing the jewels of a queen. It must be
conceded that whatever the nature of the book, no
affectation in its dress can ever change its quality or
the sentence which true judges will pass upon both.
What shall we say of those libraries in which the
books are all formally arranged, where the brilliant
gilding and shining varnish are heightened by the orna-
ments of sculpture and the intermingling of exquisite
vases and bronzes to give it a crowning charm 2
Seneca declaims against this over-refinement in the
lovers of books. He attributed it less to the love of




44 OF BIBL/OMANIA.
study and the appreciation of books than to an immod-
erate love of luxury and a vain affectation. “AWom fuit
elegantia illud,” says that Philosopher, “aut cura,
sed studiosa luxuria. Immo me studiosa guidem,
quoniam mont in studium, sed in spectaculum compara-
verant.”
Think not that this display of finely decorated
shelves is inspired by the respect and consideration
due to literature; that the desire of placing suitably,
and properly disposing by artistic arrangement, these
choice volumes so richly bound, is a tribute of homage
or worship offered to their authors. Far from it.

These are but trophies, triumphal arches which the
Bibliomaniac consecrates to his own vanity.
Oh! what would those earnest writers, those sages
of learned antiquity, think, who, pagans as they were,
never ceased to inveigh against luxury and effeminacy;
who preach to us by their example, as in their writings,
temperance, sobriety, contempt for riches, love of
modest competence? What would be their surprise
could they see, amid all this pomp, their own works,
magnificently clad, placed among the sumptuous para-
phernalia so utterly opposed to their own maxims'
OF BIBL/OMANIA. 45
|
I seem to hear an ancient say to his book:
“Parve, mec in video, sine me liber ibis in urbem.
Vade, sed incultus.
Mec te purpureo velent vaccinia fuco.
Mec titulus minio, mec cedro charta motetur.
Mec fragili gemina poliantur pumice frontes.”
Ovid, Trist., lib. 1, v. 1, et seq.
Nothing, in short, better merits the stoic contempt
of the philosopher than the practice of the outward
decoration of books by the dainty embellishments, the
fanciful ornaments, ambitious trifles, vain produc-
tions of the fancy and imagination, which reappear in
a thousand forms, and which, to say truth, are but
puerilities or silly affectations.
I should fear to become tedious were I to attack in
detail all the hobbies, or, to speak more correctly, all
the pettinesses of Bibliomania. It would require a
more powerful pen and stronger expressions than mine
to point out all the rocks and shoals of this passion.


PART IV.
THE further we proceed the more serious the matter
becomes. It is not a mere folly to be assailed, it is a
ruinous excess of which the progress must be arrested.
It was said long ago that a large book was a large evil:
“AMagnus liffer, magnum ma/um. ”
May we not, with
more reason, say the same of a huge accumulation of
books? What rich patrimonies, what ample inheri-
tances has this disease exhausted P. How many, after
embarrassing their affairs to satisfy the insatiable
craving, have next curtailed the expenses necessary to
maintain their position, and, at last, sacrificed even the
necessaries of life to furnish the means of maintaining
an extensive collection of books?
The number of the martyrs to Bibliomania is not
small. Madly impassioned of all that is beautiful or
curious, they exceed the limit of their means; then
they retrench even in their necessary expenses; at last,
they are utterly ruined.


(46)
OF BIBLIOMAWIA. 47
º
In Paris, that immense city, the theatre of so many
and varied spectacles, we sometimes see, offered at
public sale, libraries of which the acquisition has
ruined the collectors. These Bibliomaniacs, as rash
as insatiable, are in the end compelled to give up to
their creditors that which has cost them so dear to col-
lect and of which their enjoyment has been so brief
This is the end of a taste that cannot be controlled
or restricted within the bounds of reason; but these
are not the greatest dangers of Bibliomania. Its vic-
tims have other rocks to shun on which Reason and
Religion are too often shipwrecked.
I place Reason first: for what is more deplorable
for a man of sense than the eager fancy for collecting
books of an odd or peculiar character from which
nothing is to be gained for instruction, nothing to be
hoped for the cultivation of the mind, nothing even for
the amusement of refined and delicate readers?
This depraved attraction to which some Bibliomani-
acs yield themselves a prey is no mere supposition,
they are the owners of complete sets of all that is most
frivolous, most grotesque, most satiric.
Nothing is wanting to this collection: fables, tales,


48 OF BIBLYOMANZA.
romances, histories of chivalry, adventures, burlesques,
facetiae, macaronic poems, treatises on magic, witch-
craft and divination, memoirs of scandalous proced-
ures, slanderous chronicles, defamatory libels and hosts
of other writings inspired by an ill-regulated imagina-
tion or a cynical license.
These are the marvellous records which certain
wrong-headed men collect. The vainglory of possess-
ing everything, even of an evil nature, leads them to
take all, to accept productions of which the frivolity is
often the least harmful characteristic.
Thus easy in his choice of books, regarding only the
beauty of the edition, the elegance of the binding, the
charms of style, the general attraction of the work and
the acknowledged reputation of the author, this om-
niverous reader attains the point of unlimited self-
indulgence; he no longer considers anything dangerous,
or even reprehensible.
A work is presented to the public as something new.
At first it revolts the delicacy of the reader by its bold
propositions; gradually it becomes endurable; a sec-
ond reading smooths all difficulties, and he begins to
think he was too susceptible, too strait-laced. “This,”


OF BIBA WOMANZA. 49
s
he says, “is the work of a thinker, it bears the stamp
of genius; truly, the author is a Philosopher l’” Fi-
nally, this book, at the first glance so distasteful, and
deservedly so in the honest judgment of a pure mind,
gradually succeeds by the help of habit and the force
of prejudice in obtaining both approval and esteem.
Imperceptibly one depth leads to another. He that
would not listen to reason, nor abstain from what it
condemns, very soon loses his regard for morality and
even religion. Thus the ill-regulated love of books
may lead to libertinism and infidelity.
Few books, even among those not prohibited, can be
read with impunity by the general reader! So many
shock either feeling or delicacy, and often compromise
innocence and religious faith ! Vainly is the inquisitive
universal reader warned that in such a place is con-
cealed, under flowers most artistically arranged, the
most subtle and mortal poison, these warnings serve
but as spurs to his curiosity, a fresh motive to try
everything, an additional one for careless purchases
and indiscriminate reading.
Is it not often quite sufficient for the sale of a book
to be prohibited to make it more generally diffused and


50 OF BIBL/OMAAWIA.
f
º
:
more profitable to the publisher? The true method of
raising the price of a book is to suppress its circulation.
“But,” says one, “it does not deserve the attention of
men of taste, still less of good men.” That matters
not; the sale of it is made sub rosé. that is quite suf-
ficient to cause a rush for it.
After devouring these heaps of pamphlets, these
licentious productions which inundate the reading
world, of which no vigilance of the magistrate can
prevent the publication, what is the result, either a
shameful vacuity of mind or dangerous impressions of
the heart, a usual consequence of a reading of which
the waste of time is the least evil to be experienced?
An evil so open to condemnation is a fit subject for
the zeal of the preacher rather than the censure of the
Academician. I yield therefore to the pulpit the task
of declaiming against this evil; and in order not to
exceed the province of an Academician after exposing
the different abuses which characterize Bibliomania, I
will try, in conclusion, to point out by a few brief reflec-
tions the means to be employed to protect oneself
from them and to restrict the love of books within the
limits of utility, while still allowing a reasonable abund-
ance.


OF BIBLIOMANIA. 5.I
The accusation will doubtless be made that my
censure is too severe, my portraits overdrawn and my
instances too rare and too obscure. Even in my reflec-
tions will be found, it may be thought, an austerity, a
rusticity and want of cultivation, tending to despise
talents and depreciate science and art, to discourage
emulation and favor ignorance and indolence.
I would fain defend myself from these charges, and
begin by saying that my criticism is not extreme. I
appeal to Men of Letters, more especially to men of
the world dwelling in great cities. They will admit
that my portraits are to the life. They will say they
have often encountered in society the originals of what
I have sketched, and that their number is constantly on
the increase.
Many of my examples are derived from the decla-
mations on this subject by the ancient Philosophers. It
is easy to see that, if at times I have not translated
their expressions literally, I have only varied them
with the view of softening, or adapting them to our
own times. I have thought it right to claim the sup-
port of their authority that I might raise my voice
more freely in the sanctuary of the Muses against an
abuse so dishonoring to them.


52 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
Moreover, I do not think I have transgressed the
bounds of fair criticism. The prudence, the modesty,
the moderation I ask in the enjoyment of things of the
highest utility, have their foundation in the first prin-
ciples of reason, in the laws of Philosophy, in the in-
dispensable observance of order, the rules of pro-
priety and public virtue.
For the rest, I know the full value of literature; far
from decrying it I honor sincerely those who cultivate
it, I glory in all that contributes to the advancement
of learning, to the perfection of talents; I am not
ignorant that it is books which furnish their chief help,
and that the art of printing is the surest method of
rendering this help prompt, easy and universal.
I am well aware of the value of those masterpieces
of the Press whose delicacy delights the eye as their
correctness satisfies the mind. I have ever loved
books and all who love them, too; but I love truth even
better: “Amicus Plato, magis amica weritas.” The
more I value a thing the more I deplore the abuse of it.
If it be true, and who can dispute it, that study
purifies the mind and clears the judgment, that it is the
very school of virtue, is it to be tolerated that books

OF BIBLIOMANIA. 53
which are its instruments, so to speak, the organs of
truth and science, should become mere furniture to
adorn an apartment, or doubtful signs of labor or
knowledge, or even arms of offence to browbeat
Reason, or combat all that is best in laws human or
divine?
What advantage would there be in the love of books,
could we do nothing with them or learn nothing from
them 2 Wherefore seek to become learned if it is not
to become better? Wherefore feed on the maxims of
philosophers, and gaze with admiring eyes on the noble
actions of great men, if we neglect to practise the
former and imitate the latter? Should not men of
letters, more given to meditation and reflection, set an
example of correctness of taste and propriety in prac-
tice?
Even should vanity and luxury invade every other
profession, theirs should be exempt from the con-
tagion. They know so well the true office of books,
that they should be the first to fear lest they carry their
esteem to the very outer verge of passion.
I have myself seen and felt the risk. This confes-
sion might seem to give me the right to point out its

54 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
dangers. A sailor who has escaped from a wreck
delights in describing the perils of a stormy sea; a
curious, but perhaps imprudent traveller, after running
a thousand risks in his journeyings, warns all he meets
against the snares or precipices they should avoid. It
would be unfair to forbid a gambler to inveigh against
gaming when he is smarting from the effects of the
vice.
The inclination I have always felt for Bibliomania
has, nevertheless, left me free to examine its dangers.
Taught by my own experience, I have called reason to
my aid to guard me from its seductions, and the reflec-
tions which this subject inspires are far more warnings
to myself than lessons to others.
From what I have said we may draw the following
conclusions: that Bibliomania is the height of folly
for such as have neither the wish nor the will to make
an earnest use of books; that for students and connois-
seurs it is a senseless extravagance to collect every
authority on every subject which no one man can cul-
tivate; that these collections, carried to excess and
magnificence, are the signs of an undue love of the
rare, and the object of a prodigality as ruinous as

OF BIBL/OMANIA. 55
reprehensible; that the peculiar and licentious taste
which prefers such books as breathe only frivolity or
licentiousness is an odious and despicable depravity,
an utter dissoluteness of the heart that deserves the
utmost rigor of the law and the anathemas of the
virtuous.
He that is once thoroughly convinced of these truths
must acknowledge that the original purpose of books
is diametrically opposed to all excess; that they are
for the enlightenment of the soul, the improvement of
the morals, not for their perversion; that their real
value depends, not on their number or ornaments, but
simply on the useful or pleasant things they contain.
Let us then be satisfied with gathering those which
the shortness of life and our own limitations permit us
to read. To these we may add such as the duties of
our position or profession require us to consult. Let
us prefer a well-selected quality to a large quantity.
The richest in ornaments and the most precious in
appearance are often the least valuable. Perfect
editions and substantial bindings should satisfy our
ambition. - º
But objects still more worthy of our ambition are |


56 OF BIBLIOMAAVIA.
given us in books, the means of instruction, and I
venture to add, amusement. Man must have serious
occupations; to apply himself to them is his duty. He
must also have legitimate recreations; to secure them
is his necessity.
Nevertheless, whether he reads for improvement or
for recreation the exercise should always be directed
by reason and moderation. Books simply entertain-
ing, as well as those of a more serious character, often
contain lessons useful to the right mind and the upright
heart.
Let us learn from those masters in ethics, who daily
teach us the truth in their works, sometimes with the
authority both of precept and example, sometimes
with the mild persuasion of advice, or again with the
attractions of a clever amusement; let us learn, I
repeat, that true happiness is found in a noble scorn of -
the temptation of vainglory and an idle superfluity ;
let us learn that the wise man is not ambitious of
brilliancy or superabundance, but is satisfied with the
good and sufficient. -
In a word, to possess what we need is true wealth,
but it is veritable indigence always to accumulate and


OF BIBL/OMANIA. 57
never to cease to desire more. Once the necessary and
the useful become ours, all beyond creates only care,
distaste and sometimes repentance.
While man exhausts himself in schemes and is
constantly seeking to satisfy his thirst for acquisition,
life flows on, the season for enjoyment passes, and
soon the advantage of possession vanishes with the
enjoyment of it. Be then convinced that in all things
excess is always wrong, sometimes even troublesome
and often pernicious; that the rare and the brilliant
are not always the useful. Let us habituate ourselves
to measure our desires and our acquisitions by our real
needs, and to dismiss all that tends only to luxury
and parade: “Assuescamzus a mobi's removere £ompame,
et usu rerum ornamenta meetiri.”
Guided by these principles as true as profound, let
us use books with discretion if we desire to enjoy them
with profit. Let us not use them from a motive of
vanity, but as a means of instruction. They were
never designed to display our taste for pomp and show,
but to make us wiser and better. They are the medi-
caments for vice and ignorance, which a fatal mistake

may convert into a deadly poison.
58 OF BIBLIOMANIA.
Happy is he who can fix his choice well and improve
it wisely Happy is he in this as in every other cir-
cumstance of life, who is not ashamed of mediocrity
and desires naught beyond the necessary ! Happier
still is he who possesses the power to enjoy, and to
obtain a species of plenty within the bounds of modera-
tion; who claims no indulgence that is not permitted
by reason and virtue !
Armed with these cautions, he who loves study will
find in the best of a few good books a noble occupation
and an inexhaustible delight. When he has once en-
joyed so pure and delectable a pleasure what other
could he crave? What more desirable condition
than to be secure from the languor of weariness and
the dangers of idleness?
Yea, verily, the true felicity of the man of letters is
the fulfilling of the prayer of Horace, when he says:
“Quid credis, amice, precari ž
Sit mihi quod nunc est, etiam minus, ut mihi vivam.
Quod suffer est aevi, si quid super esse volunt Di,
Sit boma librorum copia.”
The student with such feelings is the true lover of

OF BIBLIOMANIA. 59
books; he knows their value and wins from them all
they have to bestow.
He only is worthy to offer this honorable testimony,
and to say with Cicero that they supply the mind of
youth with its most excellent food: adolescentiam
alumt, furnish age with its highest pleasures: sentec-
tutem oblectant; that the careful use of them adds
fresh lustre to prosperity: secundas res ornant, offers
resources and consolations in adversity: adversis per-
fugium ac solatium praebent, that they are the charm
of private life and no obstacle to public duties: delec-
tant domi, non impeditent foris, that they shorten the
night watches and keep us company in the country
and in our journeyings: fernoctant mobiscum, peregri-
ſtanttur, rusticanttur.
Notably in rural retreats and in solitude is their en-
joyment delightful. There, amid the imposing silence
of nature, aided by well-selected books, arises within
us a secret voice which reveals us to ourselves, tells us
our faults, teaches us our duties. In these retreats,
beloved of the Muses, how sweet it is to listen to their
inspiration; how free we are to meditate on the mar-
vels of the universe, on the mysteries of ethics and of


6o OF BIBLIOMANIA.
physics, thanks to the help of books, the repositories
and interpreters of both noble sciences.
What delight do we find in withdrawing at times
from the tumult of cities, the anxieties of business,
the conversation of the living, often tiresome and
frivolous, to converse with the illustrious dead, from
them to learn to think, to reflect, to cull their maxims
and profit by their counsels | He who can improve
these precious opportunities lacks nothing. “Si hor-
£um cum bibliotheca habes, nihil deerif.”
Let us then purify the taste for books, which can
only be profitable and agreeable so far as it is moder-
ate and legitimate. Let us seek to increase both its
fruits and its delights by a seasoning of judicious tem-
perance. Let us learn wisely to improve it, and that
we may never destroy its usefulness, let us avoid mak-
ing it the object of a senseless ostentation or of a blind
and dangerous passion.

PRESS OF
Edward STERN & Co., INC.,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHEGAN
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