e tolerated in their
laborious idleness. This pleasant little picture, drawn by M. L. S.
Mercier, of the state of things five centuries hence, is in strong
contrast to the painful plethora of books of the present day. Dr.
Ingleby, the famous Shakespearian scholar, is credited with the idea of
establishing a society for the purpose of procuring books which no one
else would buy; but this society (the 'Syncretic Book-club') could not
have had any success if the vast quantities of unsaleable rubbish which
one meets with on every hand are to be taken into account. Doubtless Dr.
Ingleby would have included in his scope such books as Lord Lonsdale's
'Memoir of the Reign of James II.,' 1803, which fifty years ago sold for
5-1/2 guineas, but which, within the past few months, has declined to
two shillings!

There was a time when even old and unsaleable books had a commercial
value. Before the cheapening of paper, a second-hand bookseller had
always the paper-mill to fall back on, and the price then paid, L1 10s.
per cwt., was one inducement to dispose of folios and quartos which
remained year in and year out without a purchaser. The present price of
waste-paper is half a crown a hundredweight, so that the bookseller is
now practically shut out of this poor market. Indeed, an enterprising
bibliopole was lately offering 'useful old books,' etc., at 3s. 6d. per
cwt., free on the rails, provided not less than six hundredweight is
bought. 'To young beginners,' he states, 'these lots are great
bargains'; but whether he means young beginners in literature or young
beginners in trade, is an open question. In either case, 'useful old
books' at the price of waste-paper are a novelty. There is a certain
amount of danger in the wholesale destruction of books, for posterity
may place a high value, literary and commercial, on the very works which
are now consigned to the paper-mill. Unfortunately, posterity will not
pay booksellers' rent of to-day. Just as those books which have the
largest circulation are likely to become the rarest, so do those which
were at one time most commonly met with often, after the lapse of a few
decades, become difficult to obtain. In one of his 'Echoes' notes,
Mr. G. A. Sala tells us that, in the course of forty years'
bookstall-hunting, he has known a great number of books once common
become scarce and costly--_e.g._, Lawrence's 'Lectures on Man'; Walker's
'Analysis of Beauty'; Millingen's 'Curiosities of Medica