It is a risky business, this collecting of the early editions of authors dead but a generation ago; and he would be a bold man who ventured to assert that the present prices of the first editions of the Victorian authors may be considered as stable. Bargains are bargains, and the temptation to buy is often great. But what constitutes a bargain from the collector's point of view? You cannot define it without reference to price, worth, or value; and if these be unstable it cannot constitute a bargain. 'An advantageous purchase' say the dictionaries; but if the price drop subsequently is it advantageous to you? You may think to play the wise man by collecting early editions of your own or your father's contemporaries, but it is odds on that you will burn your fingers. Yet the works of those great writers, those immortals
'On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled'
are stable in our affections as is the sun in the firmament. Whatever fortune may overtake the works of those ephemerals whom by mere fashion we applaud to-day and neglect to-morrow, the works of those great writers who have been accorded a niche in the hall of Fame will ever command our purses no less than our respect.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] Of this book, published in octavo in 1893, it is impossible to speak too highly. Both as a text-book for the student and a reference book for the collector it is invaluable. The other two volumes by Mr. Duff are also of the greatest assistance. 'The Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders of Westminster and London from 1476 to 1535' was published in 1906, and 'The English Provincial Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders to 1557' in 1912—both by the Cambridge University Press. They are still (1921) in print, and cost six and five shillings respectively.
[53] A stereotyped reprint of the revised edition published between 1857 and 1864. Each of the first five volumes is in two parts, often bound separately. Vol. 6 is an appendix.
[54] Brockhaus of Leipzig has also (1921) published a facsimile reprint of this work—price £12.
[55] The term Incunabula is now applied to all books printed before the year 1500. It is a vast study in itself, this bibliography of fifteenth-century books; and thanks to the labours of a small group of men who have devoted their lives to the subject, it is now upon a definite scientific basis. Carefully prepared monographs are issued from time to time, dealing with the different founts used by the early printers; but as this subject is unlikely to engage the attentions of those for whom this work is written (who, like the writer, are of modest means), I forbear to enter upon it in detail.
[56] It is a tedious game, but a very necessary one, and is a service due to an author. In entering a long list of errata in a folio book which has many lines to the page (Cotton's 'Monluc' has 62 lines, and the 1707 edition of Sandford's 'Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England' has nearly 150 errata!) the following method saves a lot of time. Take a strip of paper about an inch wide, place it on a page, and make a dash on the strip at every fifth line of text, numbering the dashes 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. This measurer saves one counting the lines every time.
[57] Dr. John North.