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The Cabinet.

OUTLINE OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Tout autour oiseaulx voletoient
Et si tres-doulcement chantoient,
Qu'il n'est cueur qui n'ent fust ioyeulx.
Et en chantant en l'air montoient
Et puis l'un l'autre surmontoient
A l'estriuee a qui mieulx mieulx.		Le temps n'estoit mie mieulx.
De bleu estoient vestuz les cieux,
Et le beau Soleil cler luisoit.
Violettes croissoient par lieux
Et tout faisoit ses deuoirs tieux
Comme nature le duisoit.
Œuvres de Chartier, Paris, 1617, 4to. p. 594.

UCH is the lively description of a spring morning, in the opening of Alain Chartier's "Livre des quatre dames;" and, excepting the violets, such description conveyed a pretty accurate idea of the scenery which presented itself, from the cabinet window, to the eyes of Lysander and Philemon.

Phil. How delightful, my dear friend, are the objects which we have before our eyes, within and without doors! The freshness of the morning air, of which we have just been partaking in yonder field, was hardly more reviving to my senses than is the sight of this exquisite cabinet of bibliographical works, adorned with small busts and whole-length figures from the antique! You see these precious books are bound chiefly in Morocco, or Russia leather: and the greater part of them appear to be printed upon large paper.

Lysand. Our friend makes these books a sort of hobby-horse, and perhaps indulges his vanity in them to excess. They are undoubtedly useful in their way.

Phil. You are averse then to the study of bibliography?