among the Hafod rocks--I hasten, therefore to return and
take the reader with me into the interior of Mr. Johnes's
largest library, which is terminated by a Conservatory of
upwards of 150 feet. As the ancient little books for
children [hight _Lac Puerorum_!] used to express it--"Look,
here it is."

[Illustration]]

LOREN. What defects do you discover here, Lysander?

LYSAND. They are rather omissions to be supplied than errors to be
corrected. You have warmed the interior by a Grecian-shaped stove, and
you do right; but I think a few small busts in yonder recesses would
not be out of character. Milton, Shakespeare, and Locke, would
produce a sort of inspiration which might accord with that degree of
feeling excited by the contemplation of these external objects.

LOREN. You are right. 'Ere you revisit this spot, those inspiring
gentlemen shall surround me.

BELIN. And pray add to them the busts of Thomson and Cowper: for these
latter, in my opinion, are our best poets in the description of rural
life. You remember what Cowper says--

God made the country, and Man made the town?

ALMAN. This may be very well--but we forget the purpose for which we
are convened.

LIS. True: so I entreat you, Master Lysander, to open--not the
debate--but the discussion.

LYSAND. You wish to know what are the SYMPTOMS OF THE
BIBLIOMANIA?--what are the badges or livery marks, in a library, of
the owner of the collection being a bibliomaniac?

ALMAN. Even so. My question, yesterday evening, was--if I remember
well--whether a _mere collector_ of books was necessarily a
bibliomaniac?

LYSAND. Yes: and to which--if I also recollect rightly--I replied that
the symptoms of the disease, and the character of a bibliomaniac, were
discoverable in the very books themselves!

LIS. How is this?

ALMAN & BELIN. Do pray let us hear.

PHIL. At the outset, I entreat you, Lysander, not to overcharge the
colouring of your picture. Respect the character of your auditors;
and, above all things, have mercy upon the phlogistic imagination of
Lisardo!

LYSAND. I will endeavour to discharge the important office of a
bibliomaniacal Mentor, or, perhaps, Aesculapius, to the utmost of my
power: and at all events, with the best possible intentions.

Before we touch upon the _Symptoms_, it may be as well to say a few
words respecting the _General Character_ of the BOOK DISEASE. The
ingenious Peignot[427] defines th