ble_ for I want scholarship sufficient to
understand the _Complutensian Polyglott of Cardinal Ximenes_.[447]

[Footnote 447: See pages 160, 407, ante.]

BERLIN. [Transcriber's Note: Belin.] So much for the _Vellum Symptom_.
Proceed we now to the _sixth_: which upon looking at my memoranda, I
find to be the FIRST EDITIONS. What is the meaning of this odd
symptom?

LYSAND. From the time of Ancillon to Askew, there has been a very
strong desire expressed for the possesssion [Transcriber's Note:
possession] of _original_ or _first published editions_[448] of works;
as they are in general superintended and corrected by the author
himself, and, like the first impressions of prints are considered more
valuable. Whoever is possessed with a passion for collecting books of
this kind, may unquestionably be said to exhibit a strong symptom of
the Bibliomania: but such a case is not quite hopeless, nor is it
deserving of severe treatment or censure. All bibliographers have
dwelt on the importance of these editions[449] for the sake of
collation with subsequent ones; and of detecting, as is frequently the
case, the carelessness displayed by future editors. Of such importance
is the _first edition Shakspeare_[450] considered, on the score of
correctness, that a fac-simile reprint of it has been recently
published. In regard to the Greek and Latin Classics, the possession
of these original editions is of the first consequence to editors who
are anxious to republish the legitimate text of an author. Wakefield,
I believe, always regretted that the first edition of Lucretius had
not been earlier inspected by him. When he began _his_ edition, the
Editio Princeps was not (as I have understood) in that storehouse of
almost every thing which is exquisite and rare in ancient and modern
classical literature--need I add the library of Earl Spencer?[451]

[Footnote 448: All German and French bibliographers class
these FIRST EDITIONS among rare books; and nothing is more
apt to seduce a noviciate in bibliography into error than
the tempting manner in which, by aid of capital or italic
types, these EDITIONES PRIMARIAE or _Editiones Principes_ are
set forth in the most respectable catalogues published
abroad as well as at home. But before we enter into
particulars, we must not forget that this sixth sympton
[Transcriber's Note: symptom] of the Bibliomania has been
thus pungently described i