s no time to devote to the practical
side, or who, if he has, distrusts his own knowledge; and as
everything has its compensation, such are the customers on whom the
trade mainly leans. If the amateur expert were to be too much
multiplied, the professional bookseller would inevitably be a grave
sufferer.

Those are in the safest hands, perhaps, who are in their own. But in
the case of books, as of all analogous property, the next best thing
to acting for oneself is to employ a high-class dealer, or, if the
line is very special, one who enjoys a reputation for conversance with
the particular branch of inquiry. Where a collector who does not
possess personal knowledge, and takes into his service a bookseller
who is not much more informed, or who has not studied certain classes
of literature, it is bound to be an exemplification of the blind
leading the blind, and one, at all events, unless he has a very long
purse, falling into the ditch.

Under any circumstances, it is unquestionably beneficial to any
private buyer to take some pains to arrive at at least a general
knowledge of values, as well as of the bearings and extent of the
field which he may choose. He should not be a puppet in the hands of
his representative, if he can help it. Where he cannot, he is apt to
buy in one sort of market and to sell in another. Not the worst policy
is to hand a commission to one's strongest opponent, if he will or can
take it. It disarms him. But some firms dislike agency, as the profit,
though sure, is often so narrow, particularly where the person
employed is a specialist in the line, and would have given for
purposes of re-sale in the ordinary way twice or thrice as much as the
item fetches, his personal opposition withdrawn. Hence it is not
unusual among commission-agents at book-sales to charge, not on the
price realised, but on the figure given by the client. The latter
authorises his representative to bid up to L10 for this or that lot;
it drops at L2; the fee for buying it is a percentage, not on the
lower, but the higher amount. A commission of L6 was given by the
present writer for a volume of John Leland's Tracts; it dropped at
2s.; his agent charged him 10s. brokerage.

Some hand their orders direct to the auctioneer, and this may be done
within certain limits; but if the practice becomes too habitual, the
dealers retaliate by bidding against the rostrum. "All is fair in love
and war."

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Now in the B