the women come to fetch water, and the cattle to drink. Walking in a
straight line with the front of the public library (which is at right
angles with the Hotel de Ville) you gain the best view of this Hotel, in
conjunction with the open space, or market place, and of the churches in
the distance. About this spot, Mr. Lewis fixed himself, with his pencil and
paper in hand, and produced a drawing from which I select the following
felicitous portion.

[Illustration: Drawing]

But to return to the Public Library. You are to know therefore, that The
Public Library of Stuttgart contains, in the whole, about 130,000 volumes.
Of these, there are not fewer than 8200 volumes relating to the _Sacred
Text_: exclusively of duplicates. This library has been indeed long
celebrated for its immense collection of _Bibles_. The late King of
Wuertemberg, but more particularly his father, was chiefly instrumental to
this extraordinary collection:--and yet, of the very earlier Latin
impressions, they want the _Mazarine_, or the _Editio Princeps_; and the
third volume of _Pfister's_ edition. Indeed the first volume of their copy
of the latter wants a leaf or two of prefatory matter. They have two copies
of the first _German Bible_, by _Mentelin_[7]--of which _one_ should be
disposed of, for the sake of contributing to the purchase of the earliest
edition of the Latin series. Each copy is in the original binding; but they
boast of having a _complete series of German Bibles_ before the time of
Luther; and of Luther's earliest impression of 1524, printed by Peypus,
they have a fine copy UPON VELLUM, like that in the Althorp Library; but I
think taller. Of Fust's Bible of 1462, there is but an indifferent and
cropt copy, upon paper; but of the _Polish Bible_ of 1563, there is a very
fine one, in the first oaken binding. Of _English Bibles_, there is no
edition before that of 1541, of which the copy happens to be imperfect.
They have a good large copy, in the original binding, of the _Sclavonian
Bible_ of 1581. Yet let me not dismiss this series of earlier Bibles,
printed in different languages, without noticing the copies of _Italian
versions_ of August and October 1471. Of the August impression, there is
unluckily only the second volume; but such _another_ second volume will not
probably be found in any public or private library in Europe. It is just as
if it had come fresh from the press of _Vindelin de Spira_, its printer.
Some of the capital