tor. Caterers unable to comprehend the
subtle influences at work in the mind of the book-hunter, often make
miscalculations in this way. Fitzpatrick Smart punished them so
terribly, that they at last abandoned him in despair to his own devices.

Several men of this class were under the authority of the Inchrule, and
their communings were instructive. "Thorpe's catalogue just arrived,
sir--several highly important announcements," says a portly person with
a fat volume under his arm, hustling forward with an air of assured
consequence. There is now to be a deep and solemn consultation, as when
two ambassadors are going over a heavy protocol from a third. It
happened to me to see one of these myrmidons returning from a bootless
errand of inspection to a reputed collection; he was hot and indignant
"A _collection_," he sputtered forth--"that a _collection_!--mere
rubbish, sir--irredeemable trash. What do you think, sir?--a set of the
common quarto edition of the Delphini classics, copies of Newton's works
and Bacon's works, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and so forth--nothing
better, I declare to you: and to call _that_ a collection!" Whereas, had
it contained The Pardoner and the Frere, Sir Clyomon and Clamydes, A
Knacke to knowe a Knave, Banke's Bay Horse in a Trance, or the works of
those eminent dramatists, Nabbes, May, Glapthorne, or Chettle, then
would the collection have been worthy of distinguished notice. On
another occasion, the conversation turning on a name of some repute, the
remark is ventured, that he is "said to know something about books,"
which brings forth the fatal answer--"_He_ know about books!
Nothing--nothing at all, I assure you; unless, perhaps, about their
insides."

The next slide of the lantern is to represent a quite peculiar and
abnormal case. It introduces a strangely fragile, unsubstantial, and
puerile figure, wherein, however, resided one of the most potent and
original spirits that ever frequented a tenement of clay. He shall be
called, on account of associations that may or may not be found out,
Thomas Papaverius. But how to make palpable to the ordinary human being
one so signally divested of all the material and common characteristics
of his race, yet so nobly endowed with its rarer and loftier attributes,
almost paralyses the pen at the very beginning.

In what mood and shape shall he be brought forward? Shall it be as first
we met at the table of Lucullus, whereto he was seduced by the