Lysand. Have you the conscience to ask for more? I have brought you down to the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven; and without touching upon the collections of living Bibliomaniacs, or foretelling what may be the future ravages of the Bibliomania in the course of only the next dozen years, I think it proper to put an end to my Book-Collecting History, and more especially to this long trial of your auricular patience.
Loren. A thousand thanks for your exertions! Although your friend, with whom you are on a visit, knows pretty well the extent of my bibliographical capacity, and that there have been many parts in your narrative which were somewhat familiar to me, yet, upon the whole, there has been a great deal more of novelty, and, in this novelty, of solid instruction. Sincerely, therefore Lysander, I here offer you my heart-felt thanks.
Lysand. I receive them as cordially: from an assurance that my digressions have been overlooked; or, if noticed, forgiven. It would be gross vanity, and grosser falsehood, to affirm that the discourse of this day, on my part, has given anything like a full and explicit history of all the most eminent book-collectors and patrons of Learning which have reflected such lustre upon the literary annals of our country:—No, Lorenzo: a complete account, or a perfect description, of these illustrious characters would engage a conversation, not for one day—but one week. Yet I have made the most of the transient hour, and, by my enthusiasm, have perhaps atoned for my deficiency of information.
Lis. But cannot you resume this conversation on the morrow?
Lysand. My stay with our friend is short, and I know not how he means to dispose of me to-morrow. But I have done—certainly done—with Personal History!
Loren. That may be. Yet there are other departments of the Bibliomania which may be successfully discussed. The weather will probably be fine, and let us enjoy a morning conversazione in the Alcove?
Belin. Surely, Lysander may find something in the fruitful pigeon-holes of his imagination—as the Abbè Sieyes used to do—from which he may draw forth some system or other?
Alman. You have all talked loudly and learnedly of the Book-Disease; but I wish to know whether a mere collector of books be a bibliomaniac?
Lysand. Certainly not. There are Symptoms of this disease within the very books themselves of a bibliomaniac.
Alman. And pray what are these?