If the man of letters be less dependent on others for the very perception
of his own existence than men of the world are, his solitude, however, is
not that of a desert: for all there tends to keep alive those concentrated
feelings which cannot be indulged with security, or even without ridicule
in general society. Like the Lucullus of Plutarch, he would not only live
among the votaries of literature, but would live for them; he throws open
his library, his gallery, and his cabinet, to all the Grecians. Such men
are the fathers of genius; they seem to possess an aptitude in discovering
those minds which are clouded over by the obscurity of their situations;
and it is they who so frequently project those benevolent institutions,
where they have poured out the philanthropy of their hearts in that world
which they appear to have forsaken. If Europe be literary, to whom does
she owe this more than to these men of letters? Is it not to their noble
passion of amassing through life those magnificent collections, which
often bear the names of their founders from the gratitude of a following
age? Venice, Florence, and Copenhagen, Oxford, and London, attest the
existence of their labours. Our BODLEYS and our HARLEYS, our COTTONS and
our SLOANES, our CRACHERODES, our TOWNLEYS, and our BANKS, were of this
race![A] In the perpetuity of their own studies they felt as if they were
extending human longevity, by throwing an unbroken light of knowledge into
the next age. The private acquisitions of a solitary man of letters during
half a century have become public endowments. A generous enthusiasm
inspired these intrepid labours, and their voluntary privations of what
the world calls its pleasures and its honours, would form an interesting
history not yet written; their due, yet undischarged.

[Footnote A: Sir Thomas Bodley, in 1602, first brought the old libraries
at Oxford into order for the benefit of students, and added thereto his
own noble collection. That of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford (died 1724),
was purchased by the country, and is now in the British Museum; and also
are the other collections named above. Sir Robert Cotton died 1631; his
collection is remarkable for its historic documents and state-papers. Sir
Hans Sloane's collections may be said to be the foundation of the British
Museum, and were purchased by Government for 20,000_l_., after his death,
in 1749. Of Cracherode and Townley some notice will be found on p. 2 of