letters are illuminated in the sweetest manner
possible. The leaves are white, unstained, and crackling; and the binding
is of wood. Of the _October_ impression, the copy is unequal: that is to
say, the first volume is cruelly cut, but the second is fine and tall. It
is in blue morocco binding. I must however add, in this biblical
department, that they possess a copy of our _Walton's Polyglott_ with the
_original dedication_ to King Charles II.; of the extreme rarity of which
M. Le Bret was ignorant.[8]

I now come to the CLASSICS. Of course the _two Virgils_ of 1471 were the
first objects of my examination. The _Roman_ edition was badly bound in red
morocco; that of _Adam_ was in its original binding of wood. When I opened
the _latter_, it was impossible to conceal my gratification. I turned to M.
Le Bret, and then to the book--and to the Head Librarian, and to the
book--again and again! "How now, Mons. Le Bibliographe?" (exclaimed the
professor--for M. Le Bret is a Professor of belles-lettres), "I observe
that you are perfectly enchanted with what is before you?" There was no
denying the truth of the remark--and I could plainly discern that the
worthy Head Librarian was secretly enjoying the attestations of my
transport. "The more I look at these two volumes (replied I, very leisurely
and gravely,) the more I am persuaded that they will become the property of
Earl Spencer." M. Le Bret laughed aloud at the strangeness of this reply. I
proceeded to take a particular account of them.[9]

Here is an imperfect copy of an edition of _Terence_, by _Reisinger_, in
folio; having only 130 leaves, and twenty-two lines in a full page.[10] It
is the first copy of this edition which I ever saw; and I am much deceived
if it be exceeded by any edition of the same author in rarity: and when I
say this, I am not unmindful of the Editio Princeps of it by
_Mentelin_--which happens _not_ to be here. There is, however, a
beautifully white copy of this latter printer's Editio Princeps of
_Valerius Maximus_; but not so tall as the largest of the two copies of
this same edition which I saw at Strasbourg. Of the _Offices of Cicero_, of
1466, there is rather a fine tall copy (within a quarter of an inch of ten
inches high) UPON VELLUM; in the original wooden binding. The first two or
three leaves have undergone a little martyrdom, by being scribbled upon. Of
J. de Spira's edition of the _Epistles of Cicero_, of 1469--having the
colophon on the