s another man's abhorrence: and so on, and so on. Granted
these things are so; but surely he who possesses the volume may have some
say in its appearance, since it exists upon his shelf solely for his own
delight and for no other man's?

'It is mine,' says Praktikos, 'may I not clothe it in the colours of the
rainbow if it please me?'

'Then you are a vandal,' replies Phulax, 'for you will ruin your book,
and it will not be worth ten shillings when it returns from the binder.'

And there's the rub: rebind your book and--in nine cases out of ten--_you
will lower its market value_. Therefore, if the book-collector have any
eye to the purely commercial value of his library, he will do well to
become an 'original-boards-uncut' man at once. Handsome his library will
never be, for here there will be a whole set of paper-bound volumes
lacking backs, here a folio strangely patched and mended, there a book in
rather dirty vellum somewhat cockled by damp, and so on. But he will have
the satisfaction of knowing that his volumes retain, in their appearance
at least, something of the spirit of the time in which they first saw
light. Perhaps they will create for him the more easily that stimulating
yet peaceful atmosphere imparted by a collection of old books.

Is there not, then, any alternative to preserving one's volumes in a
disreputable condition? Assuredly there is--there are two alternatives.
Either the collector will be so wise (and, incidentally, so wealthy) as
never to purchase a dilapidated book, or else he must exercise great
common sense and much good taste, putting fancy entirely to one side.

You possess a copy of Cotton's translation of the Commentaries of Messire
Blaize de Montluc, folio 1674. It is a good, clean, tall copy, but
clothed in tattered contemporary brown calf. Half of the back is missing,
two of the corners are badly broken, and a piece of the leather upon the
under cover is torn off. Perchance you elect to send it to your binder,
with strict instructions that it is to be repaired with plain calf. In
due course the volume is returned to you, and it now presents a fearful
and marvellous appearance. It is the proud possessor of a new back,
nearly but not quite matching the sides in colour, and upon this the
remaining upper half of the original back has been pasted. The corners
bulge strangely, and you can discern new leather underneath the old and
wherever the old was deficient. The sides shine with pol