How to Form a Library, 2nd ed. Wheatley Henry Benjamin

bad, for he truly loved books. He began life as an author, and would always have books about him. He complained if the printing was bad or the binding poor, and said, "I will have fine editions and handsome binding. I am rich enough for that."7 Thus spoke the true bibliophile. Mr. Edwards has collected much interesting information respecting Napoleon and his libraries, and of his labours I here freely avail myself. Bourrienne affirms that the authors who chiefly attracted Napoleon in his school days were Polybius, Plutarch, and Arrian. "Shortly before he left France for Egypt, Napoleon drew up, with his own hand, the scheme of a travelling library, the charge of collecting which was given to John Baptist Say, the Economist. It comprised about three hundred and twenty volumes, more than half of which are historical, and nearly all, as it seems, in French. The ancient historians comprised in the list are Thucydides, Plutarch, Polybius, Arrian, Tacitus, Livy, and Justin. The poets are Homer, Virgil, Tasso, Ariosto, the Télèmaque of Fénélon, the Henriade of Voltaire, with Ossian and La Fontaine. Among the works of prose fiction are the English novelists in forty volumes, of course in translations, and the indispensable Sorrows of Werter, which, as he himself told Goethe, Napoleon had read through seven times prior to October, 1808. In this list the Bible, together with the Koran and the Vedas, are whimsically, but significantly, entered under the heading Politics and Ethics (Politique et Morale).8

      Napoleon was not, however, satisfied with the camp libraries which were provided for him; the good editions were too bulky and the small editions too mean: so he arranged the plan of a library to be expressly printed for him in a thousand duodecimo volumes without margins, bound in thin covers and with loose backs. "In this new plan 'Religion' took its place as the first class. The Bible was to be there in its best translation, with a selection of the most important works of the Fathers of the Church, and a series of the best dissertations on those leading religious sects—their doctrines and their history—which have powerfully influenced the world. This section was limited to forty volumes. The Koran was to be included, together with a good book or two on mythology. One hundred and forty volumes were allotted to poetry. The epics were to embrace Homer, Lucan, Tasso, Telemachus, and the Henriade. In the dramatic portion Corneille and Racine were of course to be included, but of Corneille, said Napoleon, you shall print for me 'only what is vital' (ce qui est resté), and from Racine you shall omit 'Les Frères ennemis, the Alexandre, and Les Plaideurs. Of Crébillon, he would have only Rhadamiste and Atrée et Thyeste. Voltaire was to be subject to the same limitation as Corneille.'"9 In prose fiction Napoleon specifies the Nouvelle Héloise and Rousseau's Confessions, the masterpieces of Fielding, Richardson and Le Sage, and Voltaire's tales. Soon after this Napoleon proposed a much larger scheme for a camp library, in which history alone would occupy three thousand volumes. History was to be divided into these sections—I. Chronology and Universal History. II. Ancient History (a. by ancient writers, b. by modern writers). III. History of the Lower Empire (in like subdivisions). IV. History, both general and particular. V. The Modern History of the different States of Europe. The celebrated bibliographer Barbier drew up, according to the Emperor's orders, a detailed catalogue of the works which should form such a library. "He calculated that by employing a hundred and twenty compositors and twenty-five editors, the three thousand volumes could be produced, in satisfactory shape, and within six years, at a total cost of £163,200, supposing fifty copies of each book to be printed."10 The printing was begun, but little was actually done, and in six years Napoleon was in St. Helena.

      In his last island home Napoleon had a library, and he read largely, often aloud, with good effect. It is an interesting fact that among Napoleon's papers were found some notes on Geography written when a boy, and these close with the words—"Sainte-Hélène—petite ile."11

      In recapitulating here the names of a few of the famous men who have formed libraries it will be necessary to divide them into two classes, 1, those whose fame arises from their habit of collecting, and 2, those authors in whose lives we are so much interested that the names of the books they possessed are welcomed by us as indications of their characters. What can be said of the libraries of the Duke of Roxburghe, Earl Spencer, Thomas Grenville, and Richard Heber that has not been said often before? Two of these have been dispersed over the world, and two remain, one the glory of a noble family, and the other of the nation, or perhaps it would be more proper to say both are the glory of the nation, for every Englishman must be proud that the Spencer Library still remains intact.

      Heber left behind him over 100,000 volumes, in eight houses, four in England and four on the Continent, and no record remains of this immense library but the volumes of the sale catalogues. Such wholesale collection appears to be allied to madness, but Heber was no selfish collector, and his practice was as liberal as Grolier's motto. His name is enshrined in lasting verse by Scott:—

      "Thy volumes, open as thy heart,

      Delight, amusement, science, art,

      To every ear and eye impart;

      Yet who of all that thus employ them,

      Can like the owner's self enjoy them?—

      But hark! I hear the distant drum:

      The day of Flodden Field is come—

      Adieu, dear Heber! life and health,

      And store of literary wealth."

—MARMION, Introduction to the Sixth Canto.

      The Duke of Sussex was a worthy successor of his father, George III., in the ranks of book-collectors, and his library is kept in memory by Pettigrew's fine catalogue.

      Douce and Malone the critics, and Gough the antiquary, left their libraries to the Bodleian, and thus many valuable books are available to students in that much-loved resort of his at Oxford. Anthony Morris Storer, who is said to have excelled in everything he set his heart on and hand to, collected a beautiful library, which he bequeathed to Eton College, where it still remains, a joy to look at from the elegance of the bindings. His friend Lord Carlisle wrote of him—

      "Whether I Storer sing in hours of joy,

      When every look bespeaks the inward boy;

      Or when no more mirth wantons in his breast,

      And all the man in him appears confest;

      In mirth, in sadness, sing him how I will,

      Sense and good nature must attend him still."

      Jacob Bryant the antiquary left his library to King's College, Cambridge. At one time he intended to have followed Storer's example, and have left it to Eton College, but the Provost offended him, and he changed the object of his bequest. It is said that when he was discussing the matter, the Provost asked whether he would not arrange for the payment of the carriage of the books from his house to Eton. He thought this grasping, and King's gained the benefit of his change of mind.

      Among great authors two of the chief collectors were Scott and Southey. Scott's library still remains at Abbotsford, and no one who has ever entered that embodiment of the great man's soul can ever forget it. The library, with the entire contents of the house, were restored to Scott in 1830 by his trustees and creditors, "As the best means the creditors have of expressing their very high sense of his most honourable conduct, and in grateful acknowledgment of the unparalleled and most successful exertions he has made, and continues to make for them." The library is rich in the subjects which the great author loved, such as Demonology and Witchcraft. In a volume of a collection of Ballads and Chapbooks is this note written by Scott in 1810: "This little collection of stall tracts and ballads was formed by me, when a boy, from the baskets of the travelling pedlars. Until put into its present decent binding, it had such charms for the servants, that it was repeatedly, and with difficulty, recovered from their clutches. It contains most of the pieces that were popular about thirty years since, and I dare say many that could not now be procured for any price."

      It is odd to contrast the book-loving tastes of celebrated authors. Southey cared for his books, but Coleridge

7

Edwards, Libraries and Founders, p. 136.

8

Correspondance de Napoleon I^er, IV. pp. 37, 38, quoted by Edwards, Libraries and Founders, p. 130.

9

Edwards, Libraries and Founders, p. 133.

10

Edwards, Libraries and Founders, p. 135.

11

Edwards, Libraries and Founders, p. 142.