which inflamed BERRYER and
CAILLARD[443]--when he views the morocco binding, silk water-tabby
lining, blazing gilt edges; when he turns over the white and unspotted
leaves; gazes on the amplitude of margin; on a rare and lovely print
introduced; and is charmed with the soft and coaxing manner in which,
by the skill of Herring, Mackinlay, Rodwell, Lewis, or Faulkener,
"leaf succeeds to leaf"--he can no longer bear up against the
temptation; and, confessing himself vanquished, purchases, and
retreats--exclaiming with Virgil's shepherd----

Ut vidi, ut perii--ut me malus abstulit error!

[Footnote 441: Let us again quote a stanza from the
'Aspirant:'

FOURTH MAXIM.

Who in _all_ copies finds delight--
The wrong not scenting from the right--
And, with a choiceless appetite,
Just comes to _feed_, ... like Soph, or Templar,
Out on his iron stomach!--_we_
Have rarities we merely _see_,
Nor taste our Phoenix though it be ...
Serv'd up in the "UNIQUE EXEMPLAR,"

_Bibliosophia_, p. v.

One of the most curious proofs of the seductive popularity
of unique copies may be drawn from the following excerpt
from a catalogue of a Library sold at Utrecht in 1776; which
was furnished me by Mr. H. Ellis from a copy of the
catalogue in the possession of Mr. Cayley of the
Augmentation Office.

NO. 6870. Les Avantures de Telemaque, 8o. Rotterd. _av.
fig. en cart._ 'Cet exemplaire est tout _barbouille_. Mais
il est _de la main de la jeune Princesse Wilhelmine Auguste
de Saxe-Weimar, qui y a appris le Francois en_ 1701!!!'

I will mention a unique copy of a somewhat different cast of
character. Of the magnificent and matchless edition of
Shakspeare, printed by Mr. Bulmer and published by Mr.
Nicols, between the years 1790 and 1805, there were one
hundred copies, of the first six plays only, struck off upon
imperial folio, or _Colombier paper_; in which the large
engravings, published at the Shakspeare Gallery (now the
British Institution) might be incorporated and bound up. The
late George Steevens undertook the revision of the text,
intending to complete the entire plays in a similar form;
but the trouble and expense attending this part of the
undertaking were so great that the further prosecution of it