work to render the book-market uncertain and insecure. Collectors who
have no fixed plan or aim are apt to follow the precedent set by such
as have, or are supposed to have, one, and this obviously tends to
create a run on particular subjects or authors, till the call is
satisfied, or the _coterie_ grows sensible of the inexpediency of
proceeding any further. A revolt from a fad naturally gluts the market
with the discarded copies, and the latest vendors have to bear the
brunt. Such is not an occasional incidence, but one continually in
progress among a certain _quota_, and a large _quota_, too, of the
book-buying public, who let others judge for them, instead of judging
for themselves.

It cannot be treated as otherwise than an ordinary and reasonable
_sequitur_ that prices which are purely artificial are also arbitrary
and precarious. The quotations which are to be found in such a
publication as _Book Prices Current_ are at best a bare record of
facts; but with such a record at his elbow no man who does not possess
a fair amount of knowledge and judgment would be safe in his figures.
It would be little better than plunging. Still less is it of any use
to rely on the reports in the press, which are frequently inaccurate,
and in nine cases out of ten are the work of inexperienced persons.

The careful and discerning observer of these problems (for such they
indeed are) discovers that the high prices for books, which the trade
is never tired of citing as an encouragement to its connections, are
almost invariably associated with conditions which are adventitious or
accidental, and which scarcely ever comprise benefit to a living
individual. A man must be truly exceptional, phenomenally above
suspicion, bedridden with an incurable complaint, to disarm the
scepticism of the wary buyer under the hammer; it is the property of
the departed which is preferred; for the result cannot help him, and
he is not at hand to reserve lots. So recently as 1896, there was an
exception to the prevailing rule; but it was one rather in appearance
than in reality. We allude to the FRERE sale at Sotheby's. Now, we
repeat that this was merely an ostensible departure from ordinary
experience; and what we mean is that the most valuable portion of the
library was that which once belonged to another and antecedent person,
Sir John Fenn, and that these items had been long known to exist, and
were _desiderata_ for which public and private collectio