Continuing with the plates which come properly under the classification “Literary,” we find them to be very numerous, very various in design, and very unlike in shape and treatment. A plate which represents the past is used by Henry M. Brooks, of Salem, Mass. In this the old ink-pot and quill, the box of wafers, the wax and seal, and the sand for blotting are disposed about the letter, which, being used before the days of postage stamps and envelopes, bears the amount due and the address upon the back of the sheet. The address seen is that of the owner.
Going still further back in history E. Irenæus Stevenson has brought the very serpent of the Garden of Eden, with the fatal apple of Knowledge in his fangs, into his book-plate. Slipping down between the open pages of a large book, we see this form of his Satanic Majesty, and read upon the apple which he offers Eritis sicut Deus, Ye shall be as gods. This, from the Vulgate, is in Latin. Upon the open page we read in Greek, Be ye wise as serpents. The Shekinah blazes out all about the book. A very interesting and striking plate.
A very simple but effective reminder of the approach of old age is found in the plate of George Alexander Macbeth, of Pittsburgh, Pa. In this, an open book of coarse print lies upon the table, accompanied by a large pair of spectacles. The motto appears in the upper left corner,—Give me your favor: my dull brain was wrought with things forgotten.
Very many plates have a shelf of books, or a pile of them, accompanied with a favorite quotation, a bust of some author, the arms of the owner, or possibly his portrait. In the plate of Clifford Julius King, we see the row of books, the smoke from the waning cigar, as it rises across the open pages of a book, and the bust of Thackeray, while the motto, A jollie goode booke, whereon to looke, is better to me than golde, is suggestive of long evenings by the fireside, with choice editions to read and fondle.
The shelf of books in the plate of Nathaniel Paine, of Worcester, Mass., is enclosed within a frame which has suggestions of the heraldic shield. Behind it the palm branches are placed,