Thus 'tis in life, where first the proud, the great,
In leagued assembly keep their cumbrous state; (1)
Heavy and huge, they fill the world with dread,
Are much admired, and are but little read:
The commons next, a middle rank, are found;
Professions fruitful pour their offspring round;
Reasoners and wits are next their place allow'd,
And last, of vulgar tribes a countless crowd.

First, let us view the form, the size, the dress; (2)
For these the manners, nay the mind express;
That weight of wood, with leathern coat o'erlaid;
Those ample clasps, of solid metal made;
The close-press'd leaves, unclosed for many an age;
The dull red edging of the well-fill'd page;
On the broad back the stubborn ridges roll'd
Where yet the title stands in tarnish'd gold;
These all a sage and labour'd work proclaim,
A painful candidate for lasting fame :

(1) ["It was the literary humour of a certain Maecenas, who cheered the lustre of his patronage with the steams of a good dinner, to place his guests according to the size and thickness of the books they had printed. At the head of the table sat those who had published in folio, folissimo; next the authors in quarto, then those in octavo. At that table Blackmore would have had the precedence of Gray. Addison, who found this anecdote in one of the Anas, has seized the idea, and applied it, with his felicity of humour, in No. 529. of the Spectator."— D'ISRAELI.]

(2) ["No sooner," says Boswell, "had we made a bow to Mr. Cambridge, in his library, than Johnson ran eagerly to one side of the room, intent on poring over the backs of the books. Mr. Cambridge politely said, ' It seems odd that one should have such a desire to look at the backs of books.' Johnson, ever ready for contest, instantly answered, 'Sir, the reason is very plain. Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do, is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and the backs of books in libraries.'"-CROKER's Boswell, vol. iii. p. 240.]

No idle wit, no trifling verse can lurk
In the deep bosom of that weighty work;
No playful thoughts degrade the solemn style,
Nor one light sentence claims a transient smile.
Hence, in these times, untouch'd the pages lie,
And slumber out their immortality:

They had their day, when, after all his toil,
His morning study, and his midnight oil,
At length an author's ONE great work appear'd,
By patient hope, and length of days, endear'd:
Expecting nations hail'd it from the press;
Poetic friends prefix'd each kind address ;
Princes and kings received the pond'rous gift,
And ladies read the work they could not lift.
Fashion, though Folly's child, and guide of fools,
Rules e'en the wisest, and in learning rules;
From crowds and courts to Wisdom's seat she goes
And reigns triumphant o'er her mother's foes.
For lo! these fav'rites of the ancient mode (1)
Lie all neglected like the Birthday Ode. (2)

(1) [Original MS. :

Yon folios, once the darlings of the mode,
Now lie neglected like the Birthday Ode;

There Learning, stuff'd with maxims trite though sage,

Makes Indigestion yawn at every page.

Chain'd like Prometheus, lo! the mighty train

Brave Time's fell tooth, and live and die again;

And now the scorn of men, and now the pride,
The sires respect them, and the sons deride.]

(2) [The first Poet-laureate who expressed his wish to forego the regular production of an Ode on the sovereign's birthday, to be set to music and publicly chaunted in the royal presence, was Robert Southey, appointed to that office in 1813; and his proposal was, without hesitation, agreed to by King George IV.]

Ah! needless now this weight of massy chain; (1) Safe in themselves, the once-loved works remain ; No readers now invade their still retreat,

None try to steal them from their parent-seat;
Like ancient beauties, they may now discard
Chains, bolts, and locks, and lie without a guard.
Our patient fathers trifling themes laid by,
And roll'd, o'er labour'd works, th' attentive eye:
Page after page, the much-enduring men
Explored, the deeps and shallows of the pen ;
Till, every former note and comment known,
They mark'd the spacious margin with their own :
Minute corrections proved their studious care;
The little index, pointing, told us where;
And many an emendation show'd the age
Look'd far beyond the rubric title-page.
Our nicer palates lighter labours seek,
Cloy'd with a folio-Number once a week;
Bibles, with cuts and comments, thus go down:
E'en light Voltaire is number'd through the town:
Thus physic flies abroad, and thus the law,
From men of study, and from men of straw;
Abstracts, abridgments, please the fickle times,
Pamphlets (2) and plays, and politics and rhymes:

(1) In the more ancient libraries, works of value and importance were fastened to their places by a length of chain; and might so be perused, but not taken away.-[" At the view of the Bodleian Library, James the First exclaimed, Were I not a king, I would be an university man; and, if it were so that I must be made a prisoner, I would have no other prison than this library, and be chained together with all these goodly authors!' In this exclamation, the king had in his mind the then prevalent custom of securing books by fastening them to the shelves by chains, long enough to reach to the reading-desks under them."-D'ISRAELI.]

(2) ["From pamphlets may be learned the genius of the age, the debates of the learned, the bévues of government, and mistakes of the

But though to write be now a task of ease,
The task is hard by manly arts to please,
When all our weakness is exposed to view
And half our judges are our rivals too.

Amid these works, on which the eager eye
Delights to fix, or glides reluctant by,
When all combined, their decent pomp display,
Where shall we first our early offering pay?.

To thee, DIVINITY! to thee, the light And guide of mortals, through their mental night; By whom we learn our hopes and fears to guide; To bear with pain, and to contend with pride; When grieved, to pray; when injured, to forgive; And with the world in charity to live. (1)

courtiers. Pamphlets furnish beaus with their airs; coquettes with their charms. Pamphlets are as modish ornaments to gentlewomen's toilets, as to gentlemen's pockets: they carry reputation of wit and learning to all that make them their companions; the poor find their account in stall-keeping and hawking them; the rich find in them their shortest way to the secrets of church and state. In short, with pamphlets, the book sellers adorn the gaiety of shop-gazing. Hence accrues to grocers, apo thecaries, and chandlers, good furniture, and supplies to necessary retreats. In pamphlets, lawyers meet with their chicanery, physicians with their cant, divines with their shibboleth. Pamphlets become more and more daily amusements to the curious, idle, and inquisitive; pastime to gallants and coquettes; chat to the talkative; catch-words to informers; fuel to the envious; poison to the unfortunate; balsam to the wounded; employment to the lazy; and fabulous materials to romancers and novelists." MYLES DAVIES; Icon Libellorum, 1715.]

(1) [" It is not the reading many books which makes a man a divine, but the reading a few of the best books often over, and with attention: those, at least, who are beginning their theological studies should follow this rule."-BISHOP WATSON.

"If the reader is disposed to attend to the humble suggestions of a very private layman, I think he would find great advantage in studying and considering the following works, in the order in which they are

Not truths like these inspired that numerous race, Whose pious labours fill this ample space; But questions nice, where doubt on doubt arose, Awaked to war the long-contending foes. For dubious meanings, learn'd polemics strove, And wars on faith prevented works of love; The brands of discord far around were hurl'd, And holy wrath inflamed a sinful world : Dull though impatient, peevish though devout, With wit disgusting, and despised without; Saints in design, in execution men,

Peace in their looks, and vengeance in their pen. (1)
Methinks I see, and sicken at the sight,

Spirits of spleen from yonder pile alight;
Spirits who prompted every damning page,
With pontiff pride and still-increasing rage:

arranged: -1. The View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, by Soame Jenyns. 2. The Evidences of Christianity, by Dr. Paley. 3. Grotius on the Truth of the Christian Religion. 4. Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, by Dr. Samuel Clarke. 5. Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. 6. Bishop Hurd's Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies. 7. Lord Lyttelton's Dissertation on the Conversion of St. Paul; and, 8. Dr. Butler's Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature. From these few volumes, if they are studied with care and an upright intention, I think it may be said, that 'They shall see to whom He was not (before) spoken of; and they that have not (before) heard, shall understand.'” — MATTHIAS.]

(1) ["The history of the scholastic philosophy, might furnish a philo sophical writer with an instructive theme; it would enter into the history of the human mind, and fill a niche in our literary annals; the works of the scholastics, with the controversies of these Quodlibetinars, would at once testify all the greatness and the littleness of the human intellect. Of these scholastic divines, the most illustrious was Saint Thomas Aquinas, styled the angelical doctor. Seventeen folio volumes not only testify his industry, but even his genius. He was a great man busied all his life with making a charade of metaphysics. His 'Sum of all Theology,' a metaphysicological treatise, occupies above 1250 folio pages, of very close print in double columns."-D'ISRAELI.]