great show and filch the reputation of true antiquarians, in the hope of thus distinguishing themselves from their fellows, ignorant as they are that what they secure is the name alone without the reality. The man whom I call a genuine antiquarian is he who studies the writings of the ancients, and strives to form himself upon their model, though unable to greet them in the flesh ; who ever and anon, in his wanderings up and down the long avenue of the past, lights upon some choice fragment which brings him in an instant face to face with the immortal dead. Of such enjoyment there is no satiety. Those who truly love antiquity, love not the things, but the men of old, since a relic in the present is much what it was in the past, a mere thing. And so if it is not to things, but rather to men, that devotion is due, then even I may aspire to be some day an antique. Who shall say that centuries hence an antiquarian of the day may not look up to me as I have looked up to my predecessors ? Should I then neglect myself, and foolishly devote my energies to trifling with things ?
" Such is popular enthusiasm in these matters. It is shadow without substance. But the theme is end- less, and I shall therefore content myself with a passing record of my old inkstand."
This chapter may close with the names of two remark- able men. Li SHIH-CHEN completed in 1578, after twenty- six years of unremitting labour, his great Materia Medica. In 1596 the manuscript was laid before the Emperor, who ordered it to be printed forthwith. It deals (i) with Inanimate substances ; (2) with Plants ; and (3) with Animals, and is illustrated by over noo woodcuts. The introductory chapter passes in review forty-two previous
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