The verses of Monsieur Gail were as follow:--but I should premise that he recited them with zest and animation.
Auspice jam Phæbo, SPENCEROQUE AUSPICE, vestrum
Illa renascentis celebravit gaudia lucis
Concilium, stupuit quondam quâ talibus emptus
Boccacius cunctorum animis, miratus honores
Ipse suos, atque ipsa superbiit umbra triumpho.
Magna quidem lux illa, omni lux tempore digna.
Cui redivivus honos et gloria longa supersit
Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestræque fuissem
Lætitiæ comes, et doctæ conviva trapezæ.
Sed nune invitorque epulis, interque volentes
Gallus Apollineâ sedeo quasi lege Britannos.
Arridet D***: habet nos una voluptas.
Me quoque librorum meministis amore teneri,
Atque virûm studiis, quos Gallia jactat alumnos:
Nam si Caxtonio felix nunc Anglia gaudet,
Non minus ipsa etiam Stephanorum nomina laudat.
Hic nonnulla manent priscæ vestigia famæ.
Nobis Thucydides, Xenophon quoque pumice et auro,
Quem poliit non parca manus; felicior ille
Si possit .....[F] melius conjungere Musas!
Κοινα τα παντα φιλων perhibent: at semper amici
Quidquid doctorum est: tantis ego lætor amicis.
Æternum hæc vigeat concordia pocula firment
Artesque et libri, quæ nectant foedera reges,
Utramque et socient simul omnia vincula gentem.
CECINIT JOAN. B. GAIL,
Lector regius in biblioth. regiâ codd. gr. et lat. præfectus.
While one of the London morning newspapers (which shall be here nameless) chose to convert this harmless scene of festive mirth into a coarse and contemptible attack upon its author, the well-bred Bibliomanes of Paris viewed it with a different feeling, and drew from it a more rational inference. It was supposed, by several gentlemen of education and fortune, that a RIVAL SOCIETY might be established among themselves-- partaking in some degree of the nature of that of the ROXBURGHE, although necessarily regulated by a few different laws.
Taking the regulations of the ROXBURGHE CLUB (as laid down in the Ninth Day of the Decameron) as the basis, they put together a code of laws for the regulation of a similar Society which they chose, very aptly, to call LES BIBLIOPHILES. Behold then, under a new name, a Parisian Roxburghe Society. When I visited Paris, in the summer, of 1819, I got speedily introduced to the leading Members of the club, and obtained, from M. DURAND DE LANÇON, (one of the most devoted and most efficient of the members) that information--which is here submitted to the public: from a persuasion that it cannot be deemed wholly uninteresting, or out of order, even by the most violent enemies of the cause." The object of this Society of the BIBLIOPHILES must be expressed in the proper language of the country. It is "pour nourrir, reléver, et faire naître méme la passion de la Bibliomanie." I put it to the conscience of the most sober-minded observer of men and things--if any earthly object can be more orthodox and legitimate? The Society meet, as a corporate body, twice in the year: once in April, the second time in December; and date the foundation of their Club from the 1st of January 1820. Whatever they print, bears the general title of "Mélanges;" [G] but whether this word will be executed in the black-letter, lower-case, or in roman capitals, is not yet determined upon. One or two things, however, at starting, cannot fail to be premised; and indeed has been already observed upon--as a species of heresy. The Society assemble to a "déjeuné à la fourchette," about twelve o'clock: instead of to a "seven o'clock dinner," as do the London Roxburghers: whereby their constitutions and pockets are less affected. The other thing, to observe upon, is, that they do not print (and publish among themselves) such very strange, and out-of-the way productions, as do the London Roxburghers. For truly, of some of the latter, it may be said with the anonymous poet in the Adversaria of Barthius,
Verum hæc nee puer edidici, nee tradita patre
Accepi, nee Aristotelis de moribus umquam
Librum, aut divini Platonis dogmata legi.
Edit. Fabri. 1624, col. 345, vol. i.