Note 360 — The Drawing Room. (continued 2)

"Now he began to look after books, and to lay the foundation of a competent library. He dealt with Mr. Robert Scott, of Little-Britain, whose sister was his grandmother's woman; and, upon that acquaintance he expected, and really had from him, useful information of books and their editions. This Mr. Scott was, in his time, the greatest librarian in Europe; for, besides his stock in England, he had warehouses in Francfort, Paris, and other places, and dealt by factors. After he was grown old, and much worn by multiplicity of business, he began to think of his ease and to leave off. Whereupon he contracted with one Mills, of St. Paul's Church-yard, near £10,000 deep, and articled not to open his shop any more. But Mills, with his auctioneering, Atlasses, and projects, failed, whereby poor Scott lost above half his means: but he held to his contract of not opening his shop, and when he was in London (for he had a country house), passed most of his time at his house amongst the rest of his books; and his reading (for he was no mean scholar) was the chief entertainment of his time. He was not only an expert bookseller, but a very conscientious good man; and when he threw up his trade, Europe had no small loss of him. Our Doctor, at one lift, bought of him a whole set of Greek Classics in folio, of the best editions. This sunk his stock at that time; but afterwards, for many years of his life, all that he could (as they say) rap or run, went the same way. But the progress was small; for such a library as he desired, compared with what the pittance of his stock would purchase, allowing many years to the gathering, was of desperate expectation. He was early sensible of a great disadvantage to him in his studies, by the not having a good library in his reach; and he used to say that a man could not be a scholar at the second-hand: meaning, that learning is to be had from the original authors, and not from any quotations, or accounts in other books, for men gather with divers views, and, according to their several capacities, often perfunctorily, and almost always imperfectly: and through such slight reading, a student may know somewhat, but not judge of either author or subject. He used to say an old author could not be unprofitable; for although in their proper time they had little or no esteem, yet, in after times, they served to interpret words, customs, and other matters, found obscure in other books; of which A. Gellius is an apt instance. He courted, as a fond lover, all best editions, fairest character, best bound and preserved. If the subject was in his favour (as the Classics) he cared not how many of them he had, even of the same edition, if he thought it among the best, either better bound, squarer cut, neater covers, or some such qualification caught him. He delighted in the small editions of the Classics, by Seb. Gryphius; and divers of his acquaintance, meeting with any of them, bought and brought them to him, which he accepted as choice presents, although perhaps he had one or two of them before. He said that the black italic character agreed with his eye sight (which he accounted but weak) better than any other print, the old Elzevir not excepted, whereof the characters seemed to him more blind and confused than those of the other. Continual use gives men a judgment of things comparatively, and they come to fix on that as most proper and easy which no man, upon cursory view, would determine. His soul was never so staked down as in an old bookseller's shop; for having (as the statutes of the college required) taken orders, he was restless till he had compassed some of that sort of furniture as he thought necessary for his profession. He was, for the most part, his own factor, and seldom or never bought by commission; which made him lose time in turning over vast numbers of books, and he was very hardly pleased at last. I have borne him company at shops for hours together, and, minding him of the time, he hath made a dozen proffers before he would quit. By this care and industry, at length, he made himself master of a very considerable library, wherein the choicest collection was Greek." There is some smartness in the foregoing observations. The following, in a strain of equal interest, affords a lively picture of the bookselling trade at the close of the 17th century: "It may not be amiss to step a little aside, to reflect on the vast change in the trade of books, between that time and ours. Then, Little-Britain was a plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors; and men went thither as to a market. This drew to the place a mighty trade; the rather because the shops were spacious, and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom failed to meet with agreeable conversation. And the booksellers themselves were knowing and conversible men, with whom, for the sake of bookish knowledge, the greatest wits were pleased to converse. And we may judge the time as well spent there, as (in latter days) either in tavern or coffee-house: though the latter hath carried off the spare hours of most people. But now this emporium is vanished, and trade contracted into the hands of two or three persons, who, to make good their monopoly, ransack, not only their neighbours of the trade that are scattered about town, but all over England, aye, and beyond sea too, and send abroad their circulators, and, in that manner, get into their hands all that is valuable. The rest of the trade are content to take their refuse, with which, and the fresh scum of the press, they furnish one side of a shop, which serves for the sign of a bookseller, rather than a real one; but, instead of selling, dealing as factors, and procure what the country divines and gentry send for; of whom each hath his book factor, and, when wanting any thing, writes to his bookseller, and pays his bill. And it is wretched to consider what pickpocket work, with help of the press, these demi-booksellers make. They crack their brains to find out selling subjects, and keep hirelings in garrets, at hard meat, to write and correct by the great (qu. groat); and so puff up an octavo to a sufficient thickness, and there's six shillings current for an hour and a half's reading, and perhaps never to be read or looked upon after. One that would go higher must take his fortune at blank walls, and corners of streets, or repair to the sign of Bateman, Innys, and one or two more, where are best choice and better pennyworth's. I might touch other abuses, as bad paper, incorrect printing, and false advertising; all which, and worse, is to be expected, if a careful author is not at the heels of them." Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North. North's Lives, edit. 1744, 4to., p. 240, &c. At page 244, there is a curious account of the doctor's amusing himself with keeping spiders in a glass case—feeding them with bread and flies—and seeing these spiders afterwards quarrel with, and destroy, each other—"parents and offspring!"