Oft, when unseen, attends the fair,
And lives on honey, and the rose."
J. R. (Cork.)
Prophecies of Nostradamus (Vol. iv., pp. 86. 140. 258. 329.).
—In answer to MR. DE ST. CROIX'S fair inquiry of the source whence I derived my assertion of the existence of the first edition of Nostradamus (at p. 329.), I have to say, that it was from the very intelligent bibliographer, A. A. Renouard. I had known him in Paris at his dwelling in the Rue de Tournon (where my friend, the celebrated Arthur O'Connor, with his wife, the daughter of Condorcat, had apartments), and I afterwards had some interviews with him in London at my own house; when, on observing in his Catalogue d'un Amateur the Elzevir edition of 1668, we entered into some conversation on the subject; and, in reference to the original edition, not much valued indeed as very imperfect, he said, that though now rare, because long, as not worth preserving, neglected, it still may, and must be, in the Royal Library; "il doit nécessairement s'y trouver, et non-seulement là, mais ailleurs." I too certainly thought that the great national repository must contain it, but I made no inquiry; and as MR. DE ST. CROIX so diligently pursued the search without discovering it, I conclude, of course, that it is not there; but if he authorises M. Renouard's son, who resides in the Rue Garancière, or any respectable bookseller, to provide the little volume for him, I feel confident of his success. Nor do I apprehend that the price will correspond with its rarity, like the works of so many other writers; such even as the prophecies of Merlin, as stated in the article referred to by MR. DE ST. CROIX, without recurring to our Shakspeare's early editions, or to those of Ariosto, Cervantes, Boccacio, Molière, Froissart, Le Roman de la Rose, Amadis de Gaule, the Romances of Chivalry in various languages, and the editiones principes of the classics, &c. &c., a comparison of the value of which two centuries or less ago, as we find them in old catalogues, with their present cost, so strikes the reader. Numerous books, on the other hand, have experienced a proportionally equal depreciation:
"Sic volvenda ætas commutat tempora rerum;
Quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore," &c.
Lucretius, lib. v. 1276.
J. R. (Cork.)