I. 4.1825 A SECOND JOURNEY ROUND THE Library OF A BIBLIOMANIAC; OR, CENTO OF NOTES AND REMINISCENCES CONCERNING RARE, CURIOUS, AND VALUABLE Books. BY WILLIAM DAVIS, AUTHOR OF THE OLIO OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND LITERARY ANECDOTES LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. DAVIS, BOOKSELLER, AT THE BEDFORD LIBRARY, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, RUSSELL SQUARE. MANY know to their cost the truth of Harwood's remark "that the knowledge of Books, like the knowledge of every Art that is arduous and useful, must be purchased at a high price, and can only be acquired by an assiduous and judicious application to this pursuit for a considerable number of years." Experienced individuals will also readily admit, with Oldys, in his Librarian, " that the most industrious part in performances of this kind, is that which is most invisible; the mass of reference and reading therein required bearing no proportion to the small quantity of writing that appears." It has therefore usually happened, that any attempt to facilitate such knowledge, has been received with indulgence, if not with approbation. Without such encouragement to the Author's former productions, the present performance had never been submitted to public scrutiny; and having publicly but uselessly invited the more valuable suggestions or contributions of others, he only trusts that the sanction he has hitherto experienced may not in the present instance be diminished," And if I have done well and as fitting the occasion, it is that which I desired-but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto." W. D. "Nature will have her course, and dull Books will be forgotten in spite of Bibliographers." Campbell. Barksdale's Nympha Libethris, 12mo. 1651 |