iscentem turba, non instruit:
multoque satius est paucis te auctoribus tradere, quam errare per
multos. Quadraginta millia librorum Alexandrae arserunt: pulcherrimum
regiae opulentiae monumentum alius laudaverit, sicut et Livius, qui
elegantiae regum curaeque egregium id opus ait fuisse. Non fuit elegantia
illud aut cura, sed studiosa luxuria. Immo ne studiosa quidem: quoniam
non in studium, sed in spectaculum comparaverant: sicut plerisque,
ignaris etiam servilium literarum libri non studiorum instrumenta, sed
coenationum ornamenta sunt. Paretur itaque librorum quantum satis sit,
nihil in apparatum. Honestius, inquis, hoc te impensae, quam in Corinthia
pictasque tabulas effuderint. Vitiosum est ubique, quod nimium est. Quid
habes, cur ignoscas homini armaria citro atque ebore captanti, corpora
conquirenti aut ignotorum auctorum aut improbatorum, et inter tot millia
librorum oscitanti, cui voluminum suorum frontes maxime placent
titulique? Apud desidiosissimos ergo videbis quicquid orationum
historiarumque est, tecto tenus exstructa loculamenta; jam enim inter
balnearia et thermas bibliotheca quoque ut necessarium domus ornamentum
expolitur. Ignoscerem plane, si studiorum nimia cupidine oriretur: nunc
ista conquisita, cum imaginibus suis descripta et sacrorum opera
ingeniorum in speciem et cultum parietum comparantur."--_Seneca_, De
Tranquillitate, c. ix.

There are some good hits here, which would tell at the present day.
Seneca is reported to have had a large library; it is certain that he
possessed and fully enjoyed enormous wealth; and it is amusing to find
this commendation of literary moderation following on a well-known
passage in praise of parsimonious living, and of the good example set by
Diogenes. Modern scepticism about the practical stoicism of the ancients
is surely brought to a climax by a living writer, M. Fournier, who
maintains that the so-called tub of Diogenes was in reality a commodious
little dwelling--neat but not gorgeous. It must be supposed, then, that
he spoke of his tub much as an English country gentleman does of his
"box."]

To every man of our Saxon race endowed with full health and strength,
there is committed, as if it were the price he pays for these blessings,
the custody of a restless demon, for which he is doomed to find
ceaseless excitement, either in honest work, or some less profitable or
more mischievous occupation. Countless have been the projects devised by
the wit of man to