Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/364

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¬We were shewn into a spacious apartment, handsomely fitted up and provided with ladders, such as are common in England, for reaching their highest orders. — I was greatly struck with the immense number of volumes, in the view of which, however, my learned conductor inter- rupted me, by saying, that, as our time was limited, we must not waste it in one part of the library, as it was divided into different cham- bers, in which the books were classed according to their subjects. — I was surprized at this, and told him, that though England was more fa-» mous for literature of every character and description than any nation of our world, yet I had conceived the hall we were leaving con- tained the whole collection. " The whole col- lection !" he re-echoed with the utmost seeming amazement — " why, my dear stranger, they are only his Law-books." " What do you mean ?" I answered, with equal surprize on my part, as the reader may well believe — " what law-books ? Have you communications then with the planets and fixed stars, and made a digest of all their ¬institutions?" ¬