from the local circumstances, or, in other words,
from the place of origin. A theological treatise, a Bible, a volume of
prayers, or a law-book, published in England in the second half of the
seventeenth century, may be worth from sixpence to a sovereign; if it
bears the imprint of Boston, Cambridge (N.E.), New York, Philadelphia,
or New London, its value may be computed in bank-notes. The _Laws of
Massachusetts_, 1660, was lately sold for L109, and the _Papers
Relating to Massachusetts Bay_, 1769, for L8, the latter in boards.
The reason (so far as there is any) for this inflation is twofold: the
patriotic sentiment which leads American amateurs to desire the oldest
and most precious typographical and historical monuments of their
country, and, secondly, the perhaps less justifiable enthusiasm of
some Englishmen for books which, as they may plead, are the offspring
of the States while they were still English settlements. A copious and
fairly contemporary view of the extensive family of works belonging to
the earlier Anglo-American library may be found in the bibliographies
of Stevens, Sabin, and Harrisse, and in the Grenville, Huth, Lenox,
and Tower catalogues. There is not only no line of collecting which is
more difficult and more costly than the present, but none which,
within the last twenty years, has, so far as first-rate rarities are
concerned, more seriously advanced, even inferior copies of certain
books fetching at times five times as much as good ones did in the
seventies. Just lately the call appears to come from the other side of
the Atlantic. There are two or three new bidders. That is sufficient.

CHAPTER IX

The Modern Side--Words of advice--The place and functions of Free
Libraries--Coleridge and Byron period--Unhealthy state of the
market--The Dickens and Thackeray movement--Fashions in books--A
valuable suggestion--Slight actual demand for costly modern
productions--Two often make a market--Effect of time in settling
value--Forecast of the durability of a few names--A large-paper
copy of Byron's poems, 1807--Cheap literature not a modern
invention--The published price noted on the face of early
volumes--An episode--Practical buyers not to be considered
collectors--The first edition considered from editorial and other
points of view.

IN the acquisition of modern books, far greater caution is requisite
than in that of the older literatu