The Gentility of Book‐Collecting

A dealer in old books remarked to me not long since that he had just received an order for forty feet of his wares, with the stipulation that all were to be in well‐preserved old calf bindings, ten feet of quartos, ten of octavos, etc., but with no stipulation as to the price. I was amused and bandied jests with him concerning his customer, but I could gain no further information and was left to speculate, as endlessly as I pleased, concerning the identity and position of a man who purchased books with no regard to their contents.