in, and is smudged when they are opened. Gilt-top edges should be
smoothed with a handkerchief, and a small brush should be kept for
brushing the tops of books with rough edges, before they are opened.
But it were well that all books had the top edge gilt. There is no
better preservative against dust. Dust not only dirties books, it
seems to supply what Mr. Spencer would call a fitting environment
for book-worms. The works of book-worms speak for themselves, and
are manifest to all. How many a rare and valuable volume is spoiled
by neat round holes drilled through cover and leaves! But as to the
nature of your worm, authorities differ greatly. The ancients knew
this plague, of which Lucian speaks. Mr. Blades mentions a white
book-worm, slain by the librarian of the Bodleian. In Byzantium the
black sort prevailed. Evenus, the grammarian, wrote an epigram
against the black book-worm ("Anthol. Pal.," ix. 251):-


Pest of the Muses, devourer of pages, in crannies that lurkest,
Fruits of the Muses to taint, labour of learning to spoil;
Wherefore, oh black-fleshed worm! wert thou born for the evil thou
workest?
Wherefore thine own foul form shap'st thou with envious toil?


The learned Mentzelius says he hath heard the book-worm crow like a
cock unto his mate, and "I knew not," says he, "whether some local
fowl was clamouring or whether there was but a beating in mine ears.
Even at that moment, all uncertain as I was, I perceived, in the
paper whereon I was writing, a little insect that ceased not to
carol like very chanticleer, until, taking a magnifying glass, I
assiduously observed him. He is about the bigness of a mite, and