e deprived of them. No.
We must call up some of the spirits of the "pious and painful"
amanuenses of those days when the fourth estate of the realm, the
public press--WAS NOT--to tell us the real value of the literary
treasures we now esteem so lightly. He will tell us that in his day
the donation of a single book to a religious house was thought to give
the donor a claim to eternal salvation; and that an offering so
valued, so cherished, would be laid on the high altar amid pomp and
pageantry. He might perhaps personally remember the prior and convent
of Rochester pronouncing an irrevocable sentence of damnation on him
who should purloin or conceal their treasured Latin translation of
Aristotle's physics. He would tell us that the holiest and wisest of
men would forego ease and luxury and spend laborious years in
transcribing books for the good of others; he will tell us that
amongst many others, Osmond, Bishop of Salisbury, did this, and
perchance he will name that Guido de Jars, in his fortieth year, began
to copy the Bible on vellum, with rich and elegant decorations, and
that the suns of half a century had risen and set, ere, with
unintermitting labour and unwearied zeal, he finished it in his
ninetieth. He will also tell us, that when a book was to be sold, it
was customary to assemble all persons of consequence and character in
the neighbourhood, and to make a formal record that they were present
on this occasion. Thus, amongst the royal MSS. is a book thus
described:--

"This book of the Sentences belongs to Master Robert, archdeacon of
Lincoln, which he bought of Geoffrey the chaplain, brother of Henry
vicar of Northelkingston, in the presence of Master Robert de Lee,
Master John of Lirling, Richard of Luda, clerk, Richard the Almoner,
the said Henry the vicar and his clerk, and others: and the said
archdeacon gave the said book to God and saint Oswald, and to Peter
abbot of Barton, and the convent of Barden."

These are a few, a very few of such instances as a spirit of the
fourteenth century might allude to--to testify the value of books.
Indeed, even so late as the reign of Henry the VI., when the invention
of paper greatly facilitated the multiplication of MSS. the
impediments to study, from the scarcity of books, must have been very
great, for in the statutes of St. Mary's College, Oxford, is this
order--"Let no scholar occupy a book in the library above one hour, or
two hours at the most; lest others s