of
many choice books that had belonged to Gaignat and Charron de Menars, or
had been bound for Madame de Pompadour, or to the undiscriminating Du
Barry. In 1782, we are told, he despatched the best part of his library
to America, but had the grief of learning soon afterwards that they had
been captured at sea by the English. His philosophical temper was shown
in his reply to the bad news: 'I have but one wish upon the subject; I
hope that the person who gets this part of the booty will be able to
comprehend the value of the treasure that has come to his hands.'

The elder Mirabeau was a collector of another type. The 'friend of
mankind' intended to gather together the best and largest library in the
world. He cared nothing for the scarcity or the external adornments of a
volume; but he had a huge appetite for knowledge, and he longed to have
the means of referring to all that could illustrate the progress of the
race. He did not live to attain any marked success in his gigantic
design; but his library had at least the distinction of containing all
the books of the Comte de Buffon, enriched with marginal notes in the
naturalist's handwriting.

A modest collection was formed a few years afterwards by Pierre-Louis
Guinguene, who wrote a valuable work on the literary history of Italy. He
is remembered as having published amid the terrors of 1791 an amusing
essay on the authority of Rabelais 'in the matter of this present
Revolution.' He led a peaceful life through all that troubled time, and
succeeded in forming a very useful library containing about 3000 volumes;
it was purchased for the British Museum on his death, and became the
foundation of the great series of works on the French Revolution which
has been brought together there.

The long life of M. Antoine Renouard bridges over the space between the
days of Mirabeau and the time when the _elegants_ of the Third Empire had
invented a new bibliomania. Renouard had ordered bindings from the elder
Derome; in 1785 he bought a book at La Valliere's sale. In his
_Epictetus_ there is the following note: 'Bought in May 1785, the first
book printed on vellum that entered my library; rather luxurious for a
young fellow of seventeen, but then all my little savings were devoted to
acquiring books; parties of pleasure, and elegancies of toilette,
everything was sacrificed to my beloved books; and at that time a brisk
and brilliant business permitted expenses which were followed