For see yonder the bibliomaniacal
spirit of ARCHBISHOP LAUD pacing your library! With one hand resting
upon a folio,[352] it points, with the other, to your favourite print
of the public buildings of the University of Oxford--thereby reminding
us of his attachment, while living, to literature and fine books, and
of his benefactions to the Bodleian Library. Now it "looks frowningly"
upon us; and, turning round, and shewing the yet reeking gash from
which the life-blood flowed, it flits away--

Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno!

[Footnote 352: ARCHBISHOP LAUD, who has [Transcriber's Note:
was] beheaded in the year 1644, had a great fondness for
sumptuous decoration in dress, books, and ecclesiastical
establishments; which made him suspected of a leaning
towards the Roman Catholic religion. His life has been
written by Dr. Heylin, in a heavy folio volume of 547 pages;
and in which we have a sufficiently prolix account of the
political occurrences during Laud's primacy, but rather a
sparing, or indeed no, account of his private life and
traits of domestic character. In Lloyd's _Memoirs of the
Sufferers_ from the year 1637 to 1660 inclusive (1668, fol.)
are exhibited the articles of impeachment against the
Archbishop; and, amongst them, are the following
bibliomaniacal accusations. "Art. 5. Receiving a _Bible_,
with a crucifix embroidered on the cover of it by a lady.
Art. 6. A book of popish pictures, _two Missals_,
Pontificals, and Breviaries, which he made use of as a
scholar. Art. 7. His (own) admirable _Book of Devotion_,
digested according to the ancient way of canonical hours,
&c. Art. 19. _The book of Sports_, which was published first
in King James his reign, before he had any power in the
church; and afterward in King Charles his reign, before he
had the chief power in the church," &c., pp. 235-237. But if
Laud's head was doomed to be severed from his body in
consequence of these his bibliomaniacal frailties, what
would have been said to the fine copy of one of the
_Salisbury Primers or Missals_, printed by Pynson UPON
VELLUM, which once belonged to this archbishop, and is now
in the library of St. John's College, Oxford?! Has the
reader ever seen the same primate's copy of the _Aldine
Aristophanes_, 1498, in the same place? 'Tis a glorious