ard_, 1578, 4to. (his contribution to the Roxburghe Club) as a
present from ONE President of Bibliophiles to ANOTHER. It was bound by
Lewis, in his very best style, in morocco, with vellum linings, within
a broad border of gold, and all other similar seductive adjuncts.
Lewis considered it as a CHALLENGE to the whole bibliopegistic
fraternity at Paris:--a sort of book-gauntlet;--thrown down for the
most resolute champion to pick up--if he dare! Thouvenin, Simier,
Bozerian (as has been intimated to me) were convened on the
occasion:--they looked at the gauntlet: admired and feared it: but no
man durst pick it up!

Obstupuere animi:----

Ante omnes stupet ipse Dares[D]....

In other words, the Marquis de Chateaugiron avowed to me that it was
considered to be the _ne plus ultra_ of the art. What say you to
this, Messrs. Lesne and Crapelet?

[D] _Thouvenin_.

[155] This poem appeared early in the year 1820, under the following title.
"_La Reliure, poeme didactique en six chants_; precede d'une idee
analytique de cet art, suivi de notes historiques et critiques, et
d'un Memoire soumis a la Societe d'Encouragement, ainsi qu'au Jury
d'exposition de 1819, relatif a des moyens de perfectionnement,
propres a retarder le renouvellement des reliures. PAR LESNE. Paris,
1820. 8vo. pp. 246. The motto is thus:

Hatez-vous lentement, et sans perdre courage,
Vingt fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage;
Polissez-le sans cesse et le repolissez.

_Boileau Art. Poet._ ch. 1.

This curious production is dedicated to the Author's Son: his first
workman; seventeen years of age; and "as knowing, in his business at
that early period of life as his father was at the age of
twenty-seven." The dedication is followed by a preface, and an
advertisement, or "Idee analytique de la Reliure." In the preface, the
author deprecates both precipitate and severe criticism; "He is himself
but a book-binder--and what can be expected from a muse so cultivated?"
He doubts whether it will be read all through; but his aim and object
have been to fix, upon a solid basis, the fundamental principles of
his art. The subject, as treated in the Dictionary of Arts and Trades
by the French Academy, is equally scanty and inaccurate. The author
wishes that all arts were described by artists, as the rea