Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. /UR next meeting was again in the library. The benevolent owner of the house had left his book-cases open, to the great delight of the " Friends," and they were walking about the room examining the books. Ellesmere. When one looks at another man's library, how sure one is to find lots of books that one had never even heard of. Now here is an early novel of Shelley's. After you went to bed last night, I read a great deal of it. It is one of the most absurd books that ever was written, full of stupid horrors—Mrs. Radclifie run mad. Sir Arthur. Except in the case of the greatest authors, you will almost always find that even an author of much and just renown has written, in his early days, something of stupendous absurdity. Milverton. They are impressible creatures. They take the tone of some previous writer, and, having nogift for that kind of writing, make an exaggerated copy of something which was originally bad; for good taste is a thing which comes by long cultivation. Sir Arthur. This is evidently an old library, which has been formed by successive generations. I so much regret that the great book collectors (except in America) seem to be an extinct race. Milverton. Ah! that is indeed a misfortune ! Any one who has had to make historical researches knows of what use these collectors have been. They have preserved the most useful records, having, perhaps, themselves, no other motive for collecting but the appreciation of rarity and curiousness. Sir Arthur. People do not love books now as they used to do. Milverton. A great misfortune ! Cranmer. But what is the cause of it ? Milverton. I think I can tell you: the lending- libraries. Ellesmere. I don't see the misfortune. Milverton. I do. A man never gets so much good out of a book,...