Steal not this book for fear of strife,
For its owner carries a huge jack-knife,
was printed in coarse letters across the cover of the books most likely to go astray. How irritating it is to find the very volume one needs at the moment, missing from its accustomed place on the shelf; if anything is lacking to complete the torment of the discovery, let it be impossible to find out who has taken the desired volume, or to get any clew as to when it went or where!
Private Library of J. N. Candee Cole, This book is not loaned. Matt. xxv. 9.
Read not books alone: but men, and be careful to read thyself. The property of John Lambert, South Reading.
To Borrowers of Books.
You remember, my friend, I freely comply’d
With the favour you asked me, and fully relied
On a favour from you, which, tho’ promised, I find,
As it hasn’t been granted, is out of your mind,
To return in due time what I’ve wanted to see,
The Book, which ’tis long since you borrow’d of me.
Another I now with reluctance implore,
’Tis only to ask that you borrow no more.
Stolen from J. W. Houx,
Book-keeping taught in three words,
Never lend them.
The would-be borrower who finds these sentiments in the book he was about to ask for will scarcely be encouraged to do so, and for directness they are exceeded by only one example, in which the owner’s name is followed by the simple declaration, He does not lend books. The motto on the plate of the late George Ticknor—Suum cuique, To every man his own—was also calculated to discourage the borrower.