t issue of Milton's 'Comus,' printed
in 1637, could be had for L36 in 1864. In 1898 one with the title-page
mended brought L150. Ten years later L317 was not thought excessive for
it, whilst in 1916 a fine and perfect copy made L800. $14,250 was the
ransom of a copy at New York in 1919.

Other books there are which have had similar meteoric rises in value. The
first edition of Walton and Cotton's 'Compleat Angler' was published in
1653 at one and sixpence. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the
average price for a fine copy seems to have been between three and four
pounds. In 1850 so much as fifteen pounds was paid for a copy in a
similar state. Thirty years later it had risen to eighty-five pounds, and
during the few years following, the demand for it seems to have increased
its value considerably, for in 1887 a copy realised no less than L200.
But eight years later even this sum was easily doubled. Then came the Van
Antwerp sale at Sotheby's. A perfect copy, in the original sheepskin
binding, was offered; the hammer fell at the enormous figure of L1,290.
This sum has not yet (1921) been eclipsed; but that it was not a fancy
price[73] is shown by the fact that in 1909 a copy _not_ in the original
binding realised no less than L1,085.

In the collection of these early impressions of the great writers,
however, you must exercise considerable caution and judgment. The
examples which I have quoted will show you that it is not always
immediately, nor even within a lifetime from their death, that the works
of our greatest authors become valuable. 'Fame is a revenue payable only
to our ghosts,' wrote Sir George Mackenzie, and for literary fame Time is
indeed the ordeal by fire. We may look upon the auction-room as a Court
of Claims to Literary Fame, but it is public opinion, backing the
authorities who sit round the table, that determines each claimant's
case. It is the book that makes the price, not the price that makes the
book. Doubtless those who, relying upon their own judgment alone, gave
fifty pounds for Tennyson's 'Helen's Tower' (1861) some twenty years ago,
thought they were safe in their investment. Yet twelve years later it
could be had for thirty shillings. Fitzgerald's 'Polonius,' 1852, was
once thought cheap at five guineas. To-day you may buy it for little more
than a sovereign.

It is a risky business, this collecting of the early editions of authors
dead but a generation ago; and he would be a bold