craftsman. Its value, when "the wicked day of destiny" comes, and
the collection is broken up, will thus be made secure. For the
French do not suffer our English bindings gladly; while we have no
narrow prejudice against the works of Lortic and Cape, but the
reverse. For these reasons then, and also because every writer is
obliged to make the closest acquaintance with books in the direction
where his own studies lie, the writings of French authorities are
frequently cited in the following pages.

This apology must be followed by a brief defence of the taste and
passion of book-collecting, and of the class of men known
invidiously as book-worms and book-hunters. They and their simple
pleasures are the butts of a cheap and shrewish set of critics, who
cannot endure in others a taste which is absent in themselves.
Important new books have actually been condemned of late years
because they were printed on good paper, and a valuable historical
treatise was attacked by reviewers quite angrily because its outward
array was not mean and forbidding. Of course, critics who take this
view of new books have no patience with persons who care for
"margins," and "condition," and early copies of old books. We
cannot hope to convert the adversary, but it is not necessary to be
disturbed by his clamour. People are happier for the possession of
a taste as long as they possess it, and it does not, like the demons
of Scripture, possess them. The wise collector gets instruction and
pleasure from his pursuit, and it may well be that, in the long run,
he and his family do not lose money. The amusement may chance to
prove a very fair investment.

As to this question of making money by collecting, Mr. Hill Burton
speaks very distinctly in "The Book-hunter:" "Where money is the