23; Milton's _Lycidas_, _Poems_, _Paradise Lost_,
_Paradise Regained_, in the _editiones principes_; the works of the
minor poets, Suckling, Carew, Shirley, Davenant; Walton's _Angler_,
1653; Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, 1678; the Kilmarnock Burns, 1786;
and many first editions of Wordsworth, Lamb, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson.
Every season swells the roll of existing copies. On the contrary,
Spenser's _Faery Queen_, Books i.-iii., 1590, and Milton's _Comus_,
1634, are authentically scarce, the former especially so in fine
state; and the same may be predicated of Lovelace's _Lucasta_ (the two
parts complete). But the real meaning of the rarity of the other books
above specified--and the list might be readily enlarged--is that,
although the copies are numerous enough, the taste for capital
productions has increased within a few years out of proportion to the
recovery of new or unknown examples.

We are finding frequent occasion to cite works of foreign origin,
which are more or less habitually taken up into our own collections by
miscellaneous or general buyers; and there is among these one which
forms a signal illustration of the fallacy of uniqueness. It is the
Gutenberg or Mazarin Bible. Scarcely a library of the first rank
occurs here or elsewhere without offering a copy; and we are persuaded
that at least forty must exist, either on paper or on vellum,
throughout the world. The book occupies the same bibliographical
position as the first folio Shakespeare, the first edition of Walton's
_Angler_, and the first Burns; it tends to grow commoner, yet, so far,
not cheaper.

There are other books which, as it may be more readily understood, are
rare without being valuable, and of which such of the commercial world
as has it not in its power to expend large amounts on individual
purchases, naturally seeks to make the most. It was almost amusing,
some time since, to note the entries in some of the booksellers' lists
under "Black Letter," "Gothic Letter," "Rare Law," "Curious Early
English," and so forth; and the names of Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and
other ancient printers were freely introduced to help off a rather
lame foreigner, who was alleged to have been professionally associated
with one or the other of them. If the bookseller knows the book-buyer,
it is highly requisite that the latter should study what he is going
to buy.

Illustrations are not wanting of the loss of untold treasure through
a medium more fatal tha