h beyond my means to
adventure; but that it was at least an object worthy of the consideration
of the "higher powers" of his own government. He replied, that he had
little hopes of success in those quarters: that he was anxious to resume
his travels; talked of another trip to Senegal; for that, after so
locomotive a life, a sedentary one was wearisome to him....

... "trahit sua quemque voluptas!"

Over the chimney-piece was a portrait, in pencil, of his late uncle: done
from the life. It was the only one extant. It struck me indeed as
singularly indicative of the keen, lively, penetrating talents of the
original. On the back of the portrait were the lines which are here
subjoined:

_Des sa plus tendre enfance aux etudes livre,
La soif de la science l'a toujours devore.
Une immense lecture enrichit ses ecrits,
Et la critique sure en augmente le prix._

These lines are copied from the _Journal des Savans_ for October 1779. Iean
Joseph Rive was born at Apt, in 1730, and died at Marseilles in 1791. He
had doubtless great parts, natural and acquired: a retentive memory, a
quick perception, and a vast and varied reading. He probably commenced
amassing his literary treasures as early as his fourteenth year; and to his
latest breath he pursued his researches with unabated ardour. But his
career was embittered by broils and controversies; while the frequent acts
of kindness, and the general warmth of heart, evinced in his conduct,
hardly sufficed to soften the asperity, or to mitigate the wrath, of a host
of enemies--which assailed him to the very last. But Cadmus-like, he sowed
the seeds from which these combatants sprung. Whatever were his defects, as
a public character, he is said to have been, in private, a kind parent, a
warm friend, and an excellent master. The only servant which he ever had,
and who remained with him twenty-four years, mourned his loss as that of a
father. Peace to his ashes!

From bibliography let me gently, and naturally, as it were, conduct you
towards BIBLIOPOLISM. In other words, allow me to give you a sketch of a
few of the principal Booksellers in this gay metropolis; who strive, by the
sale of instructive and curious tomes, sometimes printed in the black
letter of _Gourmont_ and _Marnef_, to stem the torrent of those trivial or
mischievous productions which swarm about the avenues of the Palais Royal.
In ancient times, the neighbourhood of the SORBONNE was the great mart for
books