glean up single books, as accident shall produce them; this, therefore, is the time for visiting the continent. "What addition you can hope to make by ransacking other countries we will now consider. English literature you will not seek in any place but in England. Classical learning is diffused every where, and is not, except by accident, more copious in one part of the polite world than in another. But every country has literature of its own, which may be best gathered in its native soil. The studies of the learned are influenced by forms of government and modes of religion; and, therefore, those books are necessary and common in some places, which, where different opinions or different manners prevail, are of little use, and for that reason rarely to be found. 66 "Thus in Italy you may expect to meet with canonists and scholastic divines, in Germany with writers on the feudal laws, and in Holland with civilians. The schoolmen and canonists must not be neglected, for they are useful to many purposes; nor too anxiously sought, for their influence among us is much lessened by the Reformation. Of the canonists at least a few eminent writers may be sufficient. The schoolmen are of more general value. But the feudal and civil law I cannot but wish to see complete. The feudal constitution is the original of the law of property, over all the civilized part of Europe; and the civil law, as it is generally understood to include the law of nations, may be called with great propriety a regal study. these books, which have been often published, and diversified by various modes of impression, a royal library should have at least the most curious edition, the most splendid, and the most useful. The most curious edition is commonly the first, and the most useful may be expected among the last. Thus, of Tully's Offices, the edition of Fust is the most curious, and that of Grævius the most useful. The most splendid the eye will discern. With the old printers you are now become well acquainted; if you can find any collection of their productions to be sold, you will undoubtedly buy it; but this can scarcely be hoped, and you must catch up single volumes where you can find them. In every Of I place things often occur where they are at least expected. was shown a Welsh grammar written in Welsh, and printed at Milan, I believe, before any grammar of that language had been printed here. Of purchasing entire libraries, I know not whether the inconvenience may not overbalance the advantage. Of libraries connected with general views, one will have many books in common with another. When you have bought two collections, you will find that you have bought many books twice over, and many in each which you have left at home, and, therefore, did not want; and when you have selected a small number, you will have the rest to sell at a great loss, or to transport hither at perhaps a greater. It will generally be more commodious to buy the few that you want, at a price somewhat advanced, than to encumber yourself with useless books. But libraries collected for particular studies will be very valuable acquisitions. The collection of an eminent civilian, feudist, or mathematician, will perhaps have very few superfluities. Topography or local history prevails much in many parts of the continent. I have been told that scarcely a village of Italy wants its historian. These books may be generally neglected, but some will deserve attention by the celebrity of the place, the eminence of the authors, or the beauty of the sculptures. Sculpture has always been more cultivated among other nations than among us. The old art of cutting on wood, which decorated the books of ancient impression, was never carried here to any excellence; and the practice of engraving on copper, which succeeded, has never been much employed among us in adorning books. The old books with wooden cuts are to be diligently sought; the designs were often made by great masters, and the prints are such as cannot be made by any artist now living. It will be of great use to collect in every place maps of the adjacent country, and plans of towns, buildings, and gardens. By this care you will form a more valuable body of geography than can otherwise be had. Many countries have been very exactly surveyed, but it must not be expected that the exactness of actual mensuration will be preserved, when the maps are reduced by a contracted scale, and incorporated into a general system. "The king of Sardinia's Italian dominions are not large, yet the maps made of them in the reign of Victor fill two Atlantic folios. This part of your design will deserve particular regard, because, in this, your success will always be proportioned to your diligence. You are too well acquainted with literary history not to know that many books derive their value from the reputation of the printers. Of the celebrated printers you do not need to be informed, and if you did, might consult Baillet "Jugemens des Savans." The productions of Aldus are enumerated in the Bibliotheca Græca, so that you may know when you have them all; which is always of use, as it prevents needless search. The great ornaments of a library, furnished for magnificence as well as use, are the first editions, of which, therefore, I would not willingly neglect the mention. You know, sir, that the annals of typography begin with the Codex, 1457; but there is great reason to believe, that there are latent, in obscure corners, books printed before it. The secular feast, in memory of the invention of printing, is celebrated in the fortieth year of the century; if this tradition, therefore, is right, the art had in 1457 been already exercised nineteen years. "There prevails among typographical antiquaries a vague opinion, that the Bible had been printed three times before the edition of 1462, which Calmet calls 'La première édition bien averée.' One of these editions has been lately discovered in a convent, and transplanted into the French king's library. Another copy has likewise been found, but I know not whether of the same impression, or another. These discoveries are sufficient to raise hope and instigate inquiry. In the purchase of old books, let me recommend to you to inquire with great caution, whether they are perfect. In the first edition the loss of a leaf is not easily observed. You remember how near we both were to purchasing a mutilated Missal at a high price. "All this perhaps you know already, and, therefore, my letter may be of no use. I am, however, desirous to show you, that I wish prosperity to your undertaking. One advice more I will give, of more importance than all the rest, of which I, therefore, hope you will have still less need. You are going into a part of the world divided, as it is said, between bigotry and atheism: such representations are always hyperbolical, but there is certainly enough of both to alarm any mind solicitous for piety and truth; let not the contempt of superstition precipitate you into infidelity, or the horror of infidelity ensnare you in superstition. -I sincerely wish you successful and happy, for I am, Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." IV. BISHOP ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL. Ir, as Johnson stated, June 9, 1784, in the lodge of Pembroke College, writing it with his own hand in the blank page of Boswell's "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," then still in manuscript, Archibald Campbell was in 1743 or 1744 above seventy-five years old,' he must have been born about the year 1669; of illustrious birth, being the grandson of the first Marquis of Argyle, beheaded "for high treason," 1661, and nephew of the second and yet more celebrated Marquis, beheaded for his share in Monmouth's rebellion, 1685. He began life—so Johnson there said—by engaging in that unfortunate rising, when, if Johnson's dates be correct, he must have been a mere youth about sixteen years of age. Obliged to fly for complicity in this rebellion, he escaped to Surinam, where it would appear he lived for some time. When he returned, he returned zealous for monarchy and episcopacy. The date of his return is apparently not known. The next and most important fact recorded of him, is that, after the death of Bishop Sage in 1711, he was consecrated Bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church at Dundee, Aug. 25, 1711. He was afterwards elected by the clergy Bishop of Aberdeen in 1721, but the choice was not approved by the College of Bishops. He seems, therefore, never to have resided or exercised episcopal functions at Aberdeen, or, indeed, in Scotland, but lived entirely at London. This singular relation to his diocese he terminated in the year 1725, by resignation, in consequence of his want of harmony with the Scottish episcopate, regarding what were then known as "the Usages,' ,"3 which were four in number, 1, Mixing water with the wine; 2, Commemorating the faithful departed in the Communion Office; 3, Consecrating the elements by an express invocation; 4, Using the oblatory prayer before administering, as in the office of the Holy Communion in the 1 See Tour to the Hebrides, p. 311. 2 Lawson's History of the Scottish Episcopal Church, p. 211. The Scottish Liturgy. For these "Usages" Bishop Campbell zealously contended, and his ecclesiastical sympathies tended, of course, to strengthen his friendship with the English nonjurors, and he became the "familiar friend of Hicks and Nelson." step he took, according to Skinner, the ecclesiastical historian of Scotland,' of forming a separate nonjuring communion in England distinct from the Sancroft line, venturing even on the extraordinary procedure of a single consecration by himself without any assistance," showed him to be the injudicious man Johnson said he was. His greatest and best known book on the " Middle State," which Johnson, during his visit to Inverary Castle, recommended to the Duchess, though full of learning, betrayed that credulity which Johnson mentions among his characteristics. He died June 16, 1744. 3 66 Johnson He seems to have been a zealous collector of books. says he had seen in his possession a complete collection of books printed in Scotland before the Union. We may well share Boswell's wish that it had been kept entire; for the catalogue of its contents would have enabled us, either to confirm or confute Johnson's assertion, that very few books were printed in Scotland before the date of that event, 1707. This important and curious question seems never, either before Johnson's day or since, to have been broadly stated and fairly investigated. The history of the art of printing in Scotland was carried down only to the year 1600 by Herbert in his edition of Ames' "Typographical Antiquities." The same period has been illustrated by some admirable notes, read by Mr. J. T. Clark, keeper of the Advocates' Library, before the Library Association at the meeting of 1881, and published in the "Transactions" of that body for that year. The list of seventeenth-century Edinburgh printers, twenty-six in number, which Mr. Clark has appended to those notes, would seem to show that Johnson's assertion, coloured by his habitual prejudice against the pretensions of Scotland to learning, was neither accurate nor just. The subject was one worthy of the extraordinary bibliographical learning of a David Laing may we venture to express the wish that Mr. Clark, keeper of the noblest collection of books which Scotland possesses, would take up the subject, and in yet fuller "notes" continued to the year 1707, contribute to the settlement of this question? Quoted by Lawson, p. 237. 2 Tour to the Hebrides, p. 311. 3 Grub's Eccl. Hist. of Scotland, vol. iv., p. 31. |