f-high would be sure to receive from uneven
pressure.

After all, the best guide in these, as in many other matters, is "common
sense," a quality which in olden times must have been much more "common"
than in these days, else the phrase would never have become rooted in
our common tongue.

Children, with all their innocence, are often guilty of book-murder. I
must confess to having once taken down "Humphrey's History of Writing,"
which contains many brightly-coloured plates, to amuse a sick daughter.
The object was certainly gained, but the consequences of so bad a
precedent were disastrous. That copy (which, I am glad to say, was
easily re-placed), notwithstanding great care on my part, became soiled
and torn, and at last was given up to Nursery martyrdom. Can I regret
it? surely not, for, although bibliographically sinful, who can weigh
the amount of real pleasure received, and actual pain ignored, by the
patient in the contemplation of those beautifully-blended colours?

A neighbour of mine some few years ago suffered severely from a
propensity, apparently irresistible, in one of his daughters to tear his
library books. She was six years old, and would go quietly to a shelf
and take down a book or two, and having torn a dozen leaves or so down
the middle, would replace the volumes, fragments and all, in their
places, the damage being undiscovered until the books were wanted for
use. Reprimand, expostulation and even punishment were of no avail; but
a single "whipping" effected a cure.

Boys, however, are by far more destructive than girls, and have,
naturally, no reverence for age, whether in man or books. Who does not
fear a schoolboy with his first pocket-knife? As Wordsworth did not
say:--

"You may trace him oft
By scars which his activity has left
Upon our shelves and volumes. * * *
He who with pocket-knife will cut the edge
Of luckless panel or of prominent book,
Detaching with a stroke a label here, a back-band there."
_Excursion III, 83_.

Pleased, too, are they, if, with mouths full of candy, and sticky
fingers, they can pull in and out the books on your bottom shelves,
little knowing the damage and pain they will cause. One would fain cry
out, calling on the Shade of Horace to pardon the false quantity--

"Magna movet stomacho fastidia, si puer unctis
Tractavit volumen manibus." _Sat. IV_.

What boys CAN do may be g