DER BLUTIGE SCHAU-PLATZ ODER MARTYRER SPIEGEL.
“Among all the things which men have or strive for
through their whole lives,” said Alphonse the Wise, King
of Arragon, “there is nothing better than old wood to
burn, old wine to drink, old friends for company, and old
books to read. All the rest are only bagatelles.” The
wise King was something of a bookworm, and mentioned
last by way of climax the treasures that lay nearest to his
heart. Doubtless, he was thinking all the while how the
wood turns to ashes, the fames of the wine disappear with
the hour, that sooner or later “marriage and death, and
division” carry off our friends, and that the pleasure
derived from old books alone is pure and permanent. What
can exceed the delight of a connoisseur familiar with
authors, imprints, paper and bindings, and educated to an
appreciation of the difference between leaves cut and
uncut, upon discovering a perfect copy of an extremely
rare book? For him the calm satisfaction of the literateur
and the gratified avarice of the miser are blended
into a glowing passion. In the present age of the world
we measure the value of pretty much everything by the
amount of money it will bring. In Europe a copy of the
first edition of the Decameron has been sold for £2260
sterling, and one of the Gutenberg Bible on vellum, for
£3400. In this country we have not yet reached to that
height of enthusiasm or depth of purse, but in the late
sale of the library of Mr. George Brinley, a copy of the
first book printed in New York, by William Bradford,
