'Content thyselfe with thyn estate,
And send noo poor wight from thi gate:
For why this councell I thee give
To learne to die and die to lyve.'

iv. A large set of wax impressions of seals. See p. [183].

17. Model, in wood, of the Temple at Pæstum.

Carved by Mr. Thomas Wyatt, of Oxford, about 1830.

[374] Many autographs of distinguished literary men are found in the old Registers of all the persons admitted to read in the Library, since in these the readers themselves generally entered their own names. The first 'Liber admissorum' contains the names of both graduates and non-academics, the names in the first case being only in part autograph; it commences about the year 1610, and ends, in the case of graduates, arranged under their several colleges, about 1676; in the case of strangers, at 1692. The second Register, which is 'peregrinorum et aliorum admissorum' alone, begins at 1682 and ends at 1833. The first existing register of books used by readers begins Jan. 3, 1647-8, and ends Dec. 30, 1649. The following are some of the names, of some special mark, which are found in the Admission-books:—

[375] Of this xylographic Apocalypse the Library possesses two other editions; one being that called by Mr. Sotheby the Fourth, which was given by Archbp. Laud, and the other being that called the Fifth by Sotheby, but 'Editio princeps' by Heinecken, which was bought in 1853 for £120 5s. Other Block-books in the Library are, (1) two editions of the Biblia Pauperum, or Scenes from Bible History; one coloured, the other (which belonged to Douce) uncoloured; (2) the Historia B. M. V. ex Cantico Canticorum, being the edition called the Second by Sotheby; (3) Propugnacula, seu Turris Sapientiæ, a broadside, bought in 1853 for six guineas. A facsimile of this is given in vol. ii. of Sotheby's Principia; (4) Speculum Humanæ Salvationis. In this book, which is the second Latin edition of the work (formerly described as the Editio princeps), twenty pages are taken off from wood-blocks, and the rest from moveable type. The copy belonged to Douce. It came previously 'ex Musæo Pauli Girardot de Prefond,' but is not mentioned in De Bure's catalogue of that library, published in 1757. It is said that a copy of this book has been sold for the large sum of 300 guineas.

[376] A touching letter, in English, dated June 28, which Laud forwarded, together with this formal document, is printed in vol. ii. of Wharton's edition of his Remains, p. 217. In the same volume are included copies of all the letters which accompanied the Archbishop's gifts to the Library. The following reply (ibid. p. 177) to a notification from the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Frewen, of the visitation of his collection, and of the giving special charge to the Librarian respecting their safe custody, seeing that they stood unchained, and in a place frequented by strangers who came to see them, should have been noticed in its due place in the Annals.

'Sir,

'I thank you heartily for your care of my books. And I beseech you that the Library-keeper may be very watchful to look to them since they stand unchain'd. And I would to God the place in the Library for them were once ready, that they might be set up safe, and chained as the other books are; and yet then, if there be not care taken, you may have some of the best and choisest tractats cut out of the covers and purloin'd, as hath been done in some other libraries.'