What lovely companions books are. What glorious friends they make. How kindly they speak to us and tell us what they think. We read gruff Tom Carlyle, and pause at his estimate of Cromwell, and hunt through the histories of England to see what Smollett and Hume have to say about the same grim protector. We run through a few pages of Taine and
discover how grandly he criticises
the masters of English literature, but after all we go back fondly to our own Arnold, and read what he has to tell us before we quite make up our mind that the clever Frenchman is right. We sit at the feet of Holmes and read a chapter or two of his matchless Autocrat, and then with our mind full of the delicious sweets, we get down our copy of Hunt and after skimming a page or two of his "Seer," dip into the crisp and sparkling pages of Hazlitt's Round Table. Ah, yes! the fire may take all else we have if it will only leave us our books. True, a man, as the bard hath it—
"May live without books—what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope—what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love—what is passion but pining?
But where is the man who can live without dining?"
But after all the mind craves as much for food of its kind, as the stomach does for meats and bread.
Though in St. John we had no public library, there were very many private collections of books in the city. Some of them were very large and well-selected. Dr. Wm. Bayard's collection, not one volume of which was saved, was beyond all question the fullest and ripest medical library in the Dominion. It was the accumulation of many years. The collection was begun by his father and added to largely by the Doctor himself. Some rare medical works, rich in plates, costing as high as £30 sterling each, were to be found here, besides books covering the whole range of medical thought and practice. The English classics, exhibiting the very cream of letters, and
some fine specimens of modern literature filled acceptably the doctors shelves. Not a volume was saved. Indeed a photograph album was the only article rescued from the burning house. Mr. James R. Ruel, the Collector of Customs had a fine library, rich in theology and literature of the higher class. Controversial
works, books of science, and the whole range of British Poetry, ever found a welcome on Mr. Ruel's library table. In the departments of History and Geography this library was especially rich and full, and every work of character about the Reformation in England could here be consulted. Mr. Ruel's reading in this department was extensive, and he made writings of this kind his especial study. His whole collection, rare and costly as it was, and representing the labour of many years, perished before a hand could be raised in its defence. Mr. B. Lester Peters's library showed great care and culture in its selection. It too was very complete in History, Biography, Belles-lettres and Theology. Mr. Peters's fine literary taste served him well in making his collection of books, and nearly all his volumes displayed wonderful skill in rich bindings. In old play-wrights, such as Shakespeare, Jonson, Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher, and the other famous ones of that glorious age in literature—The Elizabethan—Mr. Peters's library was ample. Indeed, in works of this class no finer collection existed in the city. And in poetry which exhibited the rarest thoughts of the bards, in the works of such poets as Milton, Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, Pope and Clough, Mr. Peters's shelves contained a perfect mine of
wealth. His collection of pamphlets, the labour of thirty years, was unique and full. He had the whole of the famous Connolly and Wilmot controversy, the scattered papers of the late Dr. Gray, the Maturin pamphlets, the Colenso pamphlets, the notes on the Lost Tribes of Israel, and a thousand others, neatly and carefully put away in cases specially prepared for them. Those are all gone, and not a fragment remains. The gorgeous library of John Boyd, Esq., of Queen Square, with its enormous collection of works belonging to modern literature, its rare list of old books, its magnificent sets of presentation volumes from the authors, its numberless volumes that come from the publishers to Mr. Boyd as gifts, were swept away in an instant. The books in Mr. Boyd's cases were a reflex of the owner's taste and judgment. He had not a poor book among the whole. The entire range of English and American essayists, the whole course of British and American poetry, the cream of historical books, the ripest thoughts of the philosopher, the most delightful gems of fiction, the works of the scientists, and the great tomes of biography, clad in the most luxuriant of luxurious bindings, were the companions of Mr. Boyd's study. His lectures, common-place books, scrap-books, in fact everything which he possessed of a literary character were burned. Even the literary notes which he made from time to time in his record books during the odd moments of his too unfrequent leisure, and the bits of criticism on new poems which he occasionally made for future use on the platform and elsewhere, perished in his desk. His entire
intellectual labour vanished in an hour. Mr. A. L. Palmer's splendid library with his own valuable annotations, Mr. A. A. Stockton's voluminous and admirable library, begun by his late uncle, and Mr. Chas. W. Weldon's Law and general library were destroyed before their owners could save a single book. The Rev. Dr. Watters's library, so rich in theology and biography, was burned almost entirely. Lately large additions had been made to this delightful collection. A good many of the late Judge Chipman's best books found their way here, and the most of these were lost. Rev. Mr. Stavely's books were all burned, and not one of Rev. Mr. Carey's fine collection escaped. Some of his books were very rare and high-priced. Mr. Robert Britain's books were of general and private interest. The former embraced almost the whole range of English literature, and the latter included the best books on chemistry and science. Indeed in books belonging to the latter class, it will be difficult to find so large a collection anywhere. Mr. J. D. Underhill possessed a library of rare beauty and value. It was very large in historical works and the writings of the principal British, American and French authors. In biography and fiction of the higher order there was