'ADVICE FOR THE MILLION
Neither a borrower or a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
True for you, Mr. Shakespeare!
Moral
Of all books and chattels that ever I lent,
I never got back five-and-twenty per cent.
Fac, my Bredern!'
We may presume from this that Mr. John Marks tried to be funny, and from his composition getting into print he may flatter himself that he succeeded.
One more example of these warnings to borrowers and we have done with the subject. Lord De Tabley fixes the date of it as 1820, but surely it must be the composition of some eleventh century reprobate, who on his death-bed richly endowed a neighbouring monastery, and threatened any one who should ever disturb his endowment. The words appear on the book-plate of O. M[oore], and they read in translation: 'If any one steals this book, and with furtive hand carries it off, let him go to the foul waves of Acheron, never to return.'
Now, let us look at some of the eulogies of books or of study which are found on book-plates. These do not appear until a much later date. The text on Pirckheimer's book-plate, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,' can hardly be called one in praise of study, though it is a wholesome truth that should be borne in mind by every student. Indeed, we have to pass over more than two centuries after the invention of book-plates before one which, in the inscription upon it, yields an example of the kind now under consideration. This appears at last in 1697, in a sentiment expressed by an Austrian lawyer, John Seyringer by name. Here it is:
'He that would learn without the aid of books
Draws water in a sieve from running brooks.'
We have again to pass over many years for our next example. Peter de Maridat, who was, he tells us, a senator in the Great Council of Louis XIV. of France, used for a book-plate, which may therefore be dated before 1715, the figure of a negro, who stands with one hand resting on a shield of arms, and holds in the other a pair of scales. The arms on the shield are azure, a cross argent, and below is written:
'Inde cruce hinc trutina armatus regique deoque
Milito, Disco meis hæc duo nempe libris,'