ted by
Messrs. Rich and Hull, and the Egyptian papyri presented by Sir J. G.
Wilkinson. It would be endless, however, to enumerate these treasures;
we have indicated enough to convince our readers that the library of the
British Museum is worthy of the nation to which it belongs.

2. _Bodleian Library, Oxford._--This institution, so called from the
name of its illustrious founder, was established towards the close of
the reign of Elizabeth by Sir Thomas Bodley, who, having become
disgusted with some court intrigues, resigned all his employments about
the year 1597, and resolved to spend the remainder of his life in a
private station. Having thought of various plans to render himself
useful, he says, "I concluded at the last to set up my staff at the
library door in Oxon, being thoroughly persuaded that in my solitude and
surcease from the commonwealth affairs, I could not busy myself to
better purpose than by reducing that place, which then in every part lay
ruined and waste, to the public use of students. For the effecting
whereof I found myself furnished in a competent proportion of such four
kinds of aids, as, unless I had them all, there was no hope of good
success. For without some kind of knowledge, as well in the learned and
modern tongues as in sundry other sorts of scholastical literature;
without some purse-ability to go through with the charge; without great
store of honorable friends to further the design; and without special
good leisure to follow such a work, it could but have proved a vain
attempt and inconsiderate." Having set himself this task--"a task," as
his friend Camden justly says, "that would have suited the character of
a crowned head"--Bodley despatched from London a letter to the
vice-chancellor, offering not only to restore the building, but to
provide a fund for the purchase of books, and the maintenance of proper
officers. This offer being thankfully accepted, he commenced his
undertaking by presenting to the library a large collection of books
purchased on the continent, and valued at L10,000. He also collected
1294 rare manuscripts, which were afterwards increased to 6818,
independently of 1898 in the Ashmolean Museum. Other collections and
contributions were also, by his example and persuasion, presented to the
new library; and the additions thus made soon swelled to such an amount
that the old building was no longer sufficient to contain them. The
edifice was accordingly enlarged; and B