TEENTH-CENTURY BOOK-FIRES 25

II. BOOK-FIRES UNDER JAMES I 48

III. CHARLES THE FIRST'S BOOK-FIRES 69

IV. BOOK-FIRES OF THE REBELLION 94

V. BOOK-FIRES OF THE RESTORATION 117

VI. BOOK-FIRES OF THE REVOLUTION 136

VII. OUR LAST BOOK-FIRES 170

APPENDIX 191

INDEX 201

BOOKS

CONDEMNED TO BE BURNT.

INTRODUCTION.

There is the sort of attraction that belongs to all forbidden
fruit in books which some public authority has condemned to the
flames. And seeing that to collect something is a large part of
the secret of human happiness, it occurred to me that a variety
of the happiness that is sought in book collecting might be found
in making a collection of books of this sort. I have, therefore,
put together the following narrative of our burnt literature as
some kind of aid to any book-lover who shall choose to take my
hint and make the peculiarity I have indicated the key-note to
the formation of his library.

But the aid I offer is confined to books so condemned in the
United Kingdom. Those who would pursue the study farther afield,
and extend their wishes beyond the four seas, will find all the
aid they need or desire in Peignot's admirable _Dictionnaire
Critique, Litteraire, et Bibliographique des principaux Livres
condamnes au feu, supprimes ou censures_: Paris, 1806. To have
extended my studies to cover this wider ground would have swollen
my book as well as my labour beyond the limits of my inclination.
I may mention that Hart's _Index Expurgatorius_ covers this wider
ground for England, as far as it goes.

Nevertheless, I may, perhaps, appropriately, by way of
introduction, refer to some episodes and illustrations of
book-burning, to show the place the custom had in the development
of civilisation, and the distinction of good or bad company and
ancient lineage enjoyed by such books as their punishment by
burning entitles to places on the shelves of our fire-library.
The custom was of pagan observance long before it passed into
Christian practice; and for its existence in Greece, and for the
first instance I know of, I would refer to the once famous or
notorious work of Protagoras, certainly one of the wisest
philosophe