ilon] perhibent: at semper amici
Quidquid doctorum est: tantis ego laetor amicis.
AEternum haec vigeat concordia pocula firment
Artesque et libri, quae nectant foedera reges,
Utramque et socient simul omnia vincula gentem.

CECINIT JOAN. B. GAIL,

Lector regius in biblioth. regia codd. gr. et lat. praefectus.

While one of the London morning newspapers (which shall be here
nameless) chose to convert this harmless scene of festive mirth into a
coarse and contemptible attack upon its author, the well-bred
Bibliomanes of Paris viewed it with a different feeling, and drew from
it a more rational inference. It was supposed, by several gentlemen of
education and fortune, that a RIVAL SOCIETY might be established among
themselves--partaking in some degree of the nature of that of the
ROXBURGHE, although necessarily regulated by a few different laws.

Taking the regulations of the ROXBURGHE CLUB (as laid down in the
_Ninth Day_ of the _Decameron_) as the basis, they put together a code
of laws for the regulation of a similar Society which they chose, very
aptly, to call LES BIBLIOPHILES. Behold then, under a new name, a
_Parisian Roxburghe Society_. When I visited Paris, in the summer, of
1819, I got speedily introduced to the leading Members of the club,
and obtained, from M. DURAND DE LANCON, (one of the most devoted and
most efficient of the members) that information--which is here
submitted to the public: from a persuasion that it cannot be deemed
wholly uninteresting, or out of order, even by the most violent
enemies of the _cause_." The _object_ of this Society of the
BIBLIOPHILES must be expressed in the proper language of the country.
It is "_pour nourrir, relever, et faire naitre meme la passion de la_
_Bibliomanie_." I put it to the conscience of the most sober-minded
observer of men and things--if any earthly object can be more orthodox
and legitimate? The Society meet, as a corporate body, twice in the
year: once in April, the second time in December; and date the
foundation of their Club from the 1st of January 1820. Whatever they
print, bears the general title of "_Melanges_;"[G] but whether this
word will be executed in the black-letter, lower-case, or in roman
capitals, is not yet determined upon. One or two things, however, at
starting, cannot fail to be