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This lays me under the necessity of sponging upon my friends my calamity indeed sits lighter upon me, as I do not practise the little arts and shifts of many fine gentlemen, who drop in as it were by chance at dinner-time; who saunter about the town in hopes of meeting with some generous master of a family; or who in a morning visit protract the conversation till it is too late for them to dine any where else. No, Sir; I have a mind above such low contrivances, and openly avow my sponging without any reserve or shame-facedness.

With the view of getting a breakfast, I waited the other morning on Lord Finical, who is remarkable for having a very elegant library. The familiarity of his conversation with me in public places gave me courage to make him the first visit; and as I knew that his time of rising was about twelve, I was at his door by nine; where, after the fashion of mumpers, I gave but one single knock for fear of disturbing him. After some time the door was opened to me by a slip-shod footman, who asking my honour's pardon for having made me wait so long, shewed me into the library. Here I found my Lady's woman, with a damask napkin in her hand, taking down the books one by one, and after wiping them as tenderly as if they had been glass, putting them into their places again. She very politely hoped I would excuse her; said she should soon have done; that to be sure the books were in a great dishabille, and not fit to be seen in that pickle: "For you must know, Sir," said she," that this is the largest room in the house: and my Lady gave a ball here last night, well knowing that my Lord would not leave White's till the dancers were gone." This she desired me to keep to myself. I told her, I thought there was no great harm in making use of a room which would otherwise be useless. 66 True,

Sir," said she; "but as my Lady knows that my Lord does not choose it, and as my Lady would not willingly offend my Lord, she has strictly ordered all the servants not to blab, and desired me to be up thus early to wipe the books, for fear the dust upon them should occasion a discovery: for you know, Sir, if my Lord knows nothing of the matter, it is just the same thing as if there had been no dancing at all." As I did not controvert so eminent a doctrine, her conversation ended with wiping the last book; and after having received an assurance from me of keeping secret what she had no occasion to intrust me with, she very graciously dismissed herself.

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I was now left by myself, and was going as I thought to sit down to a most delicious repast; but I found myself in the state of a country booby at a great man's table, who sits gaping and staring at the richness of the plate and elegance of the service while he should eat his dinner. I stood astonished at the gay prospect before me: the shelves, which at the bottom were deep enough to contain just a folio tapered upwards by degrees, and ended at the dimension of a small duodecimo. All the books on the same shelf were exactly of the same size, and were only to be distinguished by their backs, which were most of them gilt and lettered, and displayed as great a variety of colours, as is to be seen in a bed of tulips for the bindings of some were red, some few black, others blue, green, or yellow; and here and there, at proper intervals, was stuck in one in vellum covering, as white as a curd, and lettered black, in order to make a stronger contrast of the colours on each side of it.

'Hitherto I stood at some distance, to take with more advantage a general view of the beauty of the whole; but curiosity leading me to a closer inspec

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myself surrounded by the best authors in ancient or modern learning. I took down several of them by way of tasting (for as Lord Bacon observes, some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested"); and by the sticking together of the leaves, occasioned by the marbling and gilding of the edges, I found that not one of them had been opened since they came out of the hands of the bookbinder.

I now fell to with a good appetite, intending to make a full meal; and while I was chewing upon a piece of Tully's philosophical writings, my Lord came in upon me. His looks discovered great uneasiness, which I attributed to the event of his last night's diversion; but, good manners requiring me to prefer his Lordship's conversation to my own amusements, I replaced his book, and by the sudden satisfaction in his countenance, perceived that the cause of his perturbation was my holding open the book with a pinch of snuff in my fingers. He said, he was glad to see me, for he should not have known else what to have done with himself: I returned the compliment by saying, I thought he could not want entertainment amidst so choice a collection of books. 66 Yes," replied he," the collection is not without elegance; but I read men only now; for I finished' my studies when I set out on my travels. You are not the first who has admired my library; and I am allowed to have as fine a taste in books as any man in England." Hereupon he shewed me a Pastor-fido bound in green and decorated with myrtle-leaves: he then took down a volume of Tillotson in a black binding with the leaves as white as a law-book, and gilt on the back with little mitres and crosiers; and lastly a Cæsar's Commentaries clothed in red and gold, in imitation of the military uniform of English officers. He reflected with an air of satisfaction upon the use

fulness of making observations in travelling abroad; and acknowledged that he owed the thought to his having seen, in a French abbé's study at Paris, all the Dauphine editions of the classics with gold dolphins on the back of them. Num vesceris istá, quam laudas plumá? was frequently at my tongue's end; but good-breeding restrained me from taking the liberty of a too familiar expostulation.

'We now sat down at the table, and my Lord, having ordered the tea-water, begged the favour of me to reach out my hand to the window-seat behind me, and give him one of the books, which lay flat one upon another, the backs and leaves alternately. I did so; and endeavouring to take the uppermost, I found that they all clung together. His Lordship seeing my surprise, laughed very heartily, saying it was only a tea-chest, and that I was not the first by many whom he had played the same trick upon. On examining it, I found that the upper book opened as a lid, and the hinges and key-hole of the lock were concealed so artfully, as they might easily escape common observation. But it was with great concern that I beheld the backs of these seeming books lettered Pope's Works. Poor Pope! with what indignation would he have swelled, had he lived to see but the mere phantom of his works become the vehicle of grocery! His Lordship, observing my eyes fixed with attention on the lettering, gave me the reason of it: "What could I do?" said he; "the credit of my library required the presence of the poet; but where to place him was the difficulty; for my shelves were all full, long before the last publication of him, and would have lost much of their beauty by any derangement; so to get clear of the embarras, I thought it might be as well to have Mr. Hallet's edition as Mr. Knapton's." I perfectly agreed with his Lordship, reserving to myself my

banker being now introduced, after hearing a joke or two upon Mr. Cash's books, which his Lordship was pleased to call a more valuable library than his own, I left them to their private business.

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And now, Mr. Fitz-Adam, for the sake of many, who, like Lord Finical, have a fine taste in books, and not the least relish for learning; and for the convenience of many more, who are fond of the appearance of learning, and can give no other proof of it, than that of possessing so many books, which are like globes to a cunning man; I desire you will give a hint to Mr. Bromwich to form a paper-hanging, representing classes of books, which may be called for at his shop by the name of learned, or library-paper, as he pleases. That ingenious gentleman, whose gains and reputation have risen equally with our papermadness, will exert his fancy in so many pretty designs of book-cases, or pieces of ornamental architecture, accommodated to the size of all rooms, in such richness of gilding, lettering, and colouring, that I doubt whether the Chinese-paper, so much in fashion in most of our great houses, must not, to his great emolument, give place to the learned: I think the library-paper will look as pretty, may be as costly, and I am sure will have more meaning. The books for a lady's closet must be on a smaller scale, and may be thrown into Chinese-houses; and here and there blank spaces may be left for brackets to hold real China ware and Dresden figures. It is to be observed that the lettering should not be put on till the paper is hung up for every customer ought to have the choosing and the marshalling his own books; by this means he may have those of the newest fashion immediately after their publication; and besides, if he should grow tired of one author or one science, he may be furnished with others at reasonable rates, by the mere alteration of the let→ tering,

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