nce, as Johnson's _Lives of
the Poets_, as Johnson published it, with all its imperfections, with
the full consciousness that improved editions exist. For the original
output represents a genuine aspect of the author's mind, prejudices
inclusive; and I am not sure that, had he lived to bring out a revised
and enlarged impression, I should have looked upon it as so
characteristic and spontaneous; and the same criticism applies to a
number of other productions, dependent for their appreciation by us
not upon their substantial, so much as on their sentimental, value.

What is not unapt to strike an average mind is that, with such a
caseful of volumes as my cursory and incomplete inventory represents
and enumerates, how much, or perhaps rather how little, remains behind
of solid, intrinsic worth, and what a preponderance of the unnamed
printed matter resolves itself into _bric-a-brac_, unless it amounts
to such publications, past and present, as one is content to procure
on loan from the circulating library or inspect in the show-cases of
our museums.

Happy the men who lived before literary societies, book-clubs, and
cheap editions, which have between them so multiplied the aggregate
stock or material from which the collector has to make his choice!
There are occasional instances where co-operation is useful, and even
necessary; but the movement has perhaps been carried too far, as such
movements usually are. Our forefathers could not have divined what an
unknown future was to yield to us in the form of printed matter of all
sorts and degrees. But they already had their great authors, their
favourite books, their rarities, in sufficient abundance. It was a
narrower field, but a less perplexing one; and from the seeing-point
of the amateur, pure and simple, our gain is not unequivocal.

I shall now proceed to draw up an experimental catalogue of works
which appear to possess a solid and permanent claim to respect and
attention for their own sakes, apart from any critical, textual, or
other secondary elements. Others without number might be added as
examples of learning, utility, and curiosity; but they do not fall
within this exceedingly select category:--

AEsop's _Fables_.
# In a form as near as may be
to the original work.
Antoninus, _Itinerary_.
_Arabian Nights._
_Arthur of Little Britain._
Ashmole's _Theatrum Chemicum_.
Athenaeus.
Aulus Gellius.
Bacon's _Sylva Sylvarum_.
Bacon's _Essays_.
Bayle's