n the poetical strains of an
"aspirant!"

SIXTH MAXIM.

Who of Editions recks the least,
But, when that hog, his mind would feast
Fattens the intellectual beast
With old, or new, without ambition,--
I'll teach the pig to soar on high,
(If pigs had pinions, by the bye)
How'er the _last_ may _satisfy_,
The _bonne bouche_ is the "FIRST EDITION."

_Bibliosophia_; p. VI.

These first editions are generally, with respect to foreign
works, printed in the fifteenth or in the early part of the
sixteenth century: and indeed we have a pretty rich
sprinkling of a similar description of first editions
executed in our own country. It is not, therefore, without
justice that we are described, by foreign bibliographers, as
being much addicted to this class of books: "With what
avidity, and at what great prices, this character of books
is obtained by the Dutch, and _especially by the English_,
the very illustrious Zach. Conrad ab Uffenbach shews, in the
preface to the second volume of his catalogue." Vogt; p.
xx., edit. 1793. There is a curious and amusing article in
Bayle (English edition, vol i., 672, &c.) about the elder
Ancillon, who frankly confessed that he "was troubled with
the Bibliomania, or disease of buying books." Mr. D'Israeli
says that he "always purchased _first editions_, and never
waited for second ones," but I find it, in the English
Bayle, note D, "he chose _the best_ editions." The manner in
which Ancillon's library was pillaged by the Ecclesiastics
of Metz (where it was considered as the most valuable
curiosity in the town) is thus told by Bayle: "Ancillon was
obliged to leave Metz: a company of Ecclesiastics, of all
orders, came from every part, to lay hands on this fine and
copious library, which had been collected with the utmost
care during forty years. They took away a great number of
the books together; and gave a little money, as they went
out, to a young girl, of twelve or thirteen years of age,
who looked after them, that they might have it to say they
had _paid for them_. Thus Ancillon saw that valuable
collection dispersed, in which, as he was wont to say, his
chief pleasure and even his heart was placed!"--Edit. 1734.
A pleasant cir