elsewhere. They are probably acquainted with most of this information, but the memory will fail us at times and it is then convenient to have a record at hand.

A book of this character is peculiarly open to criticism, but I hope the critics will give me credit for knowing more than I have set down. In making a list of books of reference, I have had to make a selection, and works have been before me that I have decided to omit, although some would think them as important as many of those I have included.

I need not extend this preface with any lengthy explanation of the objects of the book, as these are stated in the Introduction, but before concluding I may perhaps be allowed to allude to one personal circumstance. I had hoped to dedicate this first volume of the Book Lover's

Library to HENRY BRADSHAW, one of the most original and most learned bibliographers that ever lived, but before it was finished the spirit of that great man had passed away to the inexpressible grief of all who knew him. It is with no desire to shield myself under the shelter of a great name, but with a reverent wish to express my own sense of our irreparable loss that I dedicate this book (though all unworthy of the honour) to his memory.

HOW TO FORM A LIBRARY.

残

INTRODUCTION.

LTHOUGH there can be little difference of opinion among book

lovers as to the need of a Handbook which shall answer satisfactorily the question-"How to Form a Library"-it does not follow that there will be a like agreement as to the best shape in which to put the answer. On the one side a string of generalities can be of no use to any one, and on the other a too great particularity of instruction may be resented by those who only require hints on a few points, and feel that they know their own business better than any author can tell them.

One of the most important attempts to direct the would-be founder of a Library

in his way was made as long ago as 1824 by Dr. Dibdin, and the result was entitled The Library Companion. The book could never have been a safe guide, and now it is hopelessly out of date. Tastes change, and many books upon the necessity of possessing which Dibdin enlarges are now little valued. Dr. Hill Burton writes of this book as follows in his Book-Hunter: "This, it will be observed, is not intended as a manual of rare or curious, or in any way peculiar books, but as the instruction of a Nestor on the best books for study and use in all departments of literature. Yet one will look in vain there for such names as Montaigne, Shaftesbury, Benjamin Franklin, D'Alembert, Turgot, Adam Smith, Malebranche, Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Fénélon, Burke, Kant, Richter, Spinoza, Flechier, and many others. Characteristically enough, if you turn up Rousseau in the index, you will find Jean Baptiste, but not Jean Jacques. You

1 "The Library Companion, or the Young Man's Guide and the Old Man's Comfort in the Choice of a Library. By the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, F.R.S., A.S., London, 1824."