in the
mind, stored for use, and capable of being refreshed and strengthened
whenever it is wanted. In the skirmish for the Caxtons, which began the
serious work in the great conflict of the Roxburghe sale, it was
satisfactory to find, as I have already stated, on the authority of the
great historian of the war, that Earl Spencer, the victor, "put each
volume under his coat, and walked home with them in all the flush of
victory and consciousness of triumph."[40] Ere next morning he would
know a good deal more about the contents of the volumes than he did
before.

[Footnote 40: The author, from a vitiated reminiscence, at first made
the unpardonable blunder of attributing this touching trait of nature to
the noble purchaser of the Valderfaer Boccaccio. For this, as not only a
mistake, but in some measure an imputation on the tailor who could have
made for his lordship pockets of dimensions so abnormal, I received due
castigation from an eminent practical man in the book-hunting field.]

The Gleaner and his Harvest.

There are sometimes agreeable and sometimes disappointing surprises in
encountering the interiors of books. The title-page is not always a
distinct intimation of what is to follow. Whoever dips into the Novellae
of Leo, or the Extravagantes, as edited by Gothofridus, will not find
either of them to contain matter of a light, airy, and amusing kind.
Dire have been the disappointments incurred by The Diversions of
Purley--one of the toughest books in existence. It has even cast a shade
over one of our best story-books, The Diversions of Hollycot, by the
late Mrs Johnston. The great scholar, Leo Allatius, who broke his heart
when he lost the special pen with which he wrote during forty years,
published a work called Apes Urbanae--Urban Bees. It is a biographical
work, devoted to the great men who flourished during the Pontificate of
Urban VIII., whose family carried bees on their coat-armorial. The
History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker, has sorely perplexed
certain strong-minded women, who read nothing but genuine history. The
book which, in the English translation, goes by the name of Marmontel's
Moral Tales, has been found to give disappointment to parents in search
of the absolutely correct and improving; and Edgeworth's Essay on Irish
Bulls has been counted money absolutely thrown away by eminent breeders.
There is a sober-looking volume, generally bound in sheep, called
MacEwen on the T