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Page 35
What must the other folk have done--
Who, glancing o'er the books they bought,
Came soon and suddenly upon
The vandalism Varro wrought!
How must their cheeks have flamed with red--
How did their hearts with choler beat!
We can imagine what they said--
We can imagine, not repeat!
Where are the books that Varro made--
The pride of dilettante Rome--
With divers portraitures inlaid
Swiped from so many another tome?
The worms devoured them long ago--
O wretched worms! ye should have fed
Not on the books ``extended'' so,
But on old Varro's flesh instead!
Alas, that Marcus Varro lives
And is a potent factor yet!
Alas, that still his practice gives
Good men occasion for regret!
To yonder bookstall, pri'thee, go,
And by the ``missing'' prints and plates
And frontispieces you shall know
He lives, and ``extra-illustrates''!
In justice to the Judge and to myself I should say that neither
of us wholly approves the sentiment which the poem I have quoted
implies. We regard Grangerism as one of the unfortunate stages
in bibliomania; it is a period which seldom covers more than five
years, although Dr. O'Rell has met with one case in his practice
that has lasted ten years and still gives no symptom of abating
in virulence.
Humanity invariably condones the pranks of youth on the broad and
charitable grounds that ``boys will be boys''; so we
bibliomaniacs are prone to wink at the follies of the Grangerite,
for we know that he will know better by and by and will heartily
repent of the mischief he has done. We know the power of books
so well that we know that no man can have to do with books that
presently he does not love them. He may at first endure them;
then he may come only to pity them; anon, as surely as the
morrow's sun riseth, he shall embrace and love those precious
things.
So we say that we would put no curb upon any man, it being better
that many books should be destroyed, if ultimately by that
destruction a penitent and loyal soul be added to the roster of
bibliomaniacs. There is more joy over one Grangerite that
repenteth than over ninety and nine just men that need no
repentance.
And we have a similar feeling toward such of our number as for
the nonce become imbued with a passion for any of the other
little fads which bibliomaniac flesh is heir to. All the
soldiers in an army cannot be foot, or horse, or captains, or
majors, or generals, or artillery, or ensigns, or drummers, or
buglers. Each one has his place to fill and his part to do, and
the consequence is a concinnate whole. Bibliomania is beautiful
as an entirety, as a symmetrical blending of a multitude of
component parts, and he is indeed disloyal to the cause who,
through envy or shortsightedness or ignorance, argues to the
discredit of angling, or Napoleonana, or balladry, or Indians, or
Burns, or Americana, or any other branch or phase of bibliomania;
for each of these things accomplishes a noble purpose in that
each contributes to the glory of the great common cause of
bibliomania, which is indeed the summum bonum of human life.
I have heard many decried who indulged their fancy for
bookplates, as if, forsooth, if a man loved his books, he should
not lavish upon them testimonials of his affection! Who that
loves his wife should hesitate to buy adornments for her person?
I favor everything that tends to prove that the human heart is
swayed by the tenderer emotions. Gratitude is surely one of the
noblest emotions of which humanity is capable, and he is indeed
unworthy of our respect who would forbid humanity's expressing in
every dignified and reverential manner its gratitude for the
benefits conferred by the companionship of books.
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