and, if long continued, the substance of
the paper succumbs to the unhealthy influence and rots and rots until
all fibre disappears, and the paper is reduced to a white decay which
crumbles into powder when handled.

Few old libraries in England are now so thoroughly neglected as they
were thirty years ago. The state of many of our Collegiate and Cathedral
libraries was at that time simply appalling. I could mention many
instances, one especially, where a window having been left broken for
a long time, the ivy had pushed through and crept over a row of books,
each of which was worth hundreds of pounds. In rainy weather the water
was conducted, as by a pipe, along the tops of the books and soaked
through the whole.

In another and smaller collection, the rain came straight on to a
book-case through a sky-light, saturating continually the top shelf
containing Caxtons and other early English books, one of which, although
rotten, was sold soon after by permission of the Charity Commissioners
for L200.

Germany, too, the very birth-place of Printing, allows similar
destruction to go on unchecked, if the following letter, which appeared
about a Year ago (1879) in the _Academy_ has any truth in it:--

"For some time past the condition of the library at Wolfenbuttel has
been most disgraceful. The building is in so unsafe a condition
that portions of the walls and ceilings have fallen in, and the many
treasures in Books and MSS. contained in it are exposed to damp and
decay. An appeal has been issued that this valuable collection may not
be allowed to perish for want of funds, and that it may also be now at
length removed to Brunswick, since Wolfenbuttel is entirely deserted as
an intellectual centre. No false sentimentality regarding the memory of
its former custodians, Leibnitz and Lessing, should hinder this project.
Lessing himself would have been the first to urge that the library and
its utility should be considered above all things."

The collection of books at Wolfenbuttel is simply magnificent, and I
cannot but hope the above report was exaggerated. Were these books to
be injured for the want of a small sum spent on the roof, it would be a
lasting disgrace to the nation. There are so many genuine book-lovers
in Fatherland that the commission of such a crime would seem incredible,
did not bibliographical history teem with similar desecrations.[1]

[1] This was written in 1879, since which time a new building