Quality versus Quantity Available to Purchase

“Lies from the specialist,” sings the bard, “Give t'old ones a newer twist”; and in addition, of course, a really good lie needs plenty of facts and figures to make it thoroughly convincing. Now, I might claim to be a specialist at the business of abundance, insofar as I have been attempting, for two years, to fill the empty shelves of a new library as quickly as possible; but, so far as facts and figures are concerned, I have none beyond what the BNB informs me is the number of new books received at the British Museum this year, which (at the time of writing) is about 14,000.