's depredations was exposed in 1868, when Lord
Ashburnham issued a translation of the Pentateuch from a Latin MS. which
had been purchased by a previous holder of the title from Libri, who
sold it under the condition that it was not to be published for twenty
years. It had been stolen in 1847 from the Lyons Library, and the clause
in the agreement, therefore, is easily understood. Libri evidently was
not one of those whom Jules Janin describes as 'people who don't think
it thieving to steal a book unless you sell it afterwards.'

Unfortunately, education has knocked all the virtue out of charms and
incantation. Madame de Genlis is said to have fenced the greater part of
her library with the following lines:

'Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis;
Dismas, et Gesmas, media est Divina Potestas;
Alta petit Dismas, infelix infima Gesmas.
Nos et res nostras conservet Summa Potestas!--
Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.'

Quite a long chapter could be made up of the doggerel rhymes frequently
made use of in bygone days in which the prospective thief was warned off
under penalties of a prison, or even of a worse end. Here is one:

'Si quisquis furetur
This little Libellum
Per Phoebum, per Jovem,
I'll kill him--I'll fell him--
In ventrem illius
I'll stick my scalpellum,
And teach him to steal
My little Libellum.'

And here is another:

'Qui ce livre volera,
Pro suis criminibus
Au gibet il dansera,
Pedibus pendentibus.'

A curious and interesting chapter in the history of book-stealing is
furnished us by Mr. F. S. Ellis. 'Some thirty years since I was talking
with Mr. Hunt, for many years Town Clerk of Ipswich, who was an ardent
book-collector, and in the course of conversation he lamented how some
ten years previously he had missed an opportunity of buying a first
edition of "Paradise Lost" under the following circumstances. There was
a sale in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, in which a number of books were
included. These were all tied in bundles and catalogued simply as so
many books in one lot. Going over one of these bundles, what was his
surprise to find a first edition of "Paradise Lost," with the first
title-page, and in the original sheepskin binding! He said nothing, but
went round to the auctioneer's house and asked him if he would be
willing to sell him a particular book out of the