compliments with you. The old dead writers receive praise and offer no
equivalent.

During a series of years there was a notorious run, which, as usual,
became indiscriminate, on first editions of the writings of Dickens,
Thackeray, and other foremost men of the period, eclipsing, as it
seemed, even the demand for the earlier English classics, till the
auctioneers and booksellers in their catalogues underlined at a
venture every _editio princeps_, though it might be the last as well
as the first, and, whether or no, a book of no mark. But the
enthusiasm has at last contracted itself within narrower and more
intelligent limits, and is restricted to productions which rank as
masterpieces or are special favourites, and then all postulates have
to be satisfied, all bibliographical minutiae have to be studied. It
is impossible to foresee how far this latest compromise may last; but
whatever it is, there must always be some novelty to keep the market
going, and bring grist to the mill. The world of fashion comprehends
books as well as bonnets and dresses; but the literary section is a
humble one by comparison, and is in few hands. Every fresh _mode_ has
somewhere its starter, and it usually prevails long enough to suit the
purposes of the trade, when it makes way for its successor.

If one had the ordering of these strategical devices, one would
imagine that the true policy was to buy up a given class of books,
procure the insertion of a clever article or two in the press,
extolling their merits and lamenting the public ignorance and neglect,
and then launch a Jesuitically constructed catalogue devoted to such
undeservedly disregarded treasures. But we may have been forestalled.
Who knows?

The less current and every-day literary ware appeals to a more or less
narrow constituency. There is a proverb, "The wool-seller knows the
wool-buyer;" and it has to be so in books. There are volumes which, if
they do not from their character or price suit one of a circle of
half-a-dozen collectors, with whose means and wants the whole trade is
generally familiar, are exceedingly likely to suit nobody outside the
public libraries at public library prices. So much is this the case,
that many booksellers do not think it worth their while to publish
catalogues, and content themselves with reporting to the most probable
purchaser fresh acquisitions. With certain very special and costly
rarities _two_ often make a market.

Time will perfo