<span style="color:grey">And als in t,

    <span style="color:grey">In times great periods surn to nought.

    <span style="color:grey">itoil of sprite w,

    <span style="color:grey">As idle sounds, of fe--

    <span style="color:grey">t ter than mere praise.

    tain urally steal a  urbed. In sucering about ters of estminster Abbey, enjoying t luxury of  o dignify ion, minster sc football, broke in upon tic stillness of ted passages and mouldering tombs ec. I sougo take refuge from trating still deeper into tudes of to one of to the library.

    ed me tal ricure of former ages, er-ed. Just . to t y, as if seldom used. e noaircase, and, passing tered the library.

    I found myself in a lofty antique ed by massive joists of old Englis ly opened upon ters. An ancient picture of some reverend dignitary of ted principally of old polemical ers, and re of tary table , an inkstand  ink, and a feed for quiet study and profound meditation. It  up from tumult of ts of tly sers, and tolling for prayers ecs of merriment greer and fainter, and at lengto   toll, and a profound silence reigned the dusky hall.

    I aken dotle to, curiously bound in parc, ed myself at table in a venerable elbo of to a train of musing. As I looked around upon tly never disturbed in t but consider terary catacomb,  to blacken and moulder in dusty oblivion.

    I,  aside  some acs! ude of cells and cloisters, s till more blessed face of Nature; and devoted to painful researcense re?ection! And all for o occupy an incy so itles of ture age by some droo be lost even to remembrance. Suc of ted immortality. A mere temporary rumor, a local sound; like tone of t bell o, lingering transiently in ec !

    ating, table speculations ing on my o, until I accidentally loosened to my utter astonis, ttle book gave t lengto talk. At ?rst its voice   ed a cold from long exposure to t time,  became more distinct, and I soon found it an exceedingly ?uent, conversable little tome.

    Its language, to be sure,  and obsolete, and its pronunciation  day,  I so render it in modern parlance.

    It began  t of t merit being suffered to languisy, and otopics of literary repining, and complained bitterly t it  been opened for more turies--t to times took dori?ed s, and turned to t; a plague do t; said ttle quarto,  up c of old vergers, like so many beauties in a o be looked at noten to give pleasure and to be enjoyed; and I  at least once a year; or, if  equal to task, let turn loose tminster among us, t at any rate ;

    quot;Softly, my ; replied I; quot;you are not aer you are off t books of your generation. By being stored a library you are like treasured remains of ts and monarcemporary mortals, left to ture, urned to dust.quot;

    quot;Sir,quot; said ttle tome, ruf?ing ;I ten for all t for tended to circulate from o  contemporary  uries, and migly fallen a prey to t are playing testines if you  by cunity of uttering a fe o pieces.quot;

    quot;My good friend,quot; rejoined I, quot; to tion of emporaries can be at present in existence, and ty to being immured like yourself in old libraries; ead of likening to  more properly and gratefully o ttaco religious establiss for t of t, and ering and no employment, ten endure to an amazingly good-for-notalk of your contemporaries as if in circulation.   do este of Lincoln? No one could oiled ality. o ten nearly t o perpetuate , alas! ts are scattered in various libraries, iquarian.  do iquary, p? erity; but posterity never inquires after his labors.

    of ingdon, e a treatise on tempt of tting  is quoted of Joseper, styled tion?

    Of   forever, excepting a mere fragment; to a feerature; and as to irely disappeared.  is in current use of Joree of life? Of illiam of Malmsbury--of Simeon of Dur of Peterboroug. Albans--of----quot;

    quot;Prit; cried to in a testy tone, quot;alking of aut lived long before my time, and e eitin or Frenc triated to be forgotten;* but I, sir, ten in my oive tongue, at a time w Englis;

    (I s tolerably antiquated terms, t I e dif?culty in rendering to modern p;I cry you mercy,quot; said I, quot;for mistaking your age; but it matters little. Almost all ters of your time o forgetfulness, and De ordes publications are mere literary rarities among book-collectors. ty and stability of language, too, on uity, o times of t of Gloucester, ongues perpetually subject to cermixtures. It is terature so extremely mutable, and tation built upon it so   ?eeting. Unless t can be committed to somet and unc must se of everyto decay. ty and exultation of t popular er. ering and subject to tions of time and try, once tes of ted by modern ers. A fes can only be relis taste of ticipates, e of  may be admired in its day and y, iquated and obsolete, until it s as unintelligible in its native land as an Egyptian obelisk or one of tions said to exist in ts of tartary. quot;I declare,quot; added I, ion, quot;e a modern library, ?lled o sit do in all tary array, and re?ected t in one  one of tence.quot;

    * quot;In Latin and Frenctes  delyte to endite, and  certes t speaken tasye as ament of Love.

    + ;After vell f Geffry Cime of Ricer te, monke of Berrie, our said toong  passe, notanding t it never came unto type of perfection until time of Queen Elizabet ers, ure of to t praise and mortal commendation.quot;

    quot;A; said ttle quarto, ;I see  is: t Sir Pately plays and Mirror for Magistrates, or t;

    quot;taken,quot; said I; quot;ters ion, ality of s, delicate images, and graceful turns of language, is noioned. Sackville rutted into obscurity; and even Lyly, tings  of a court, and apparently perpetuated by a proverb, is no time, ings and troversies. ave after erature il t it is only no some industrious diver after fragments of antiquity brings up a specimen for ti?cation of the curious.

    * quot;Live ever se booke; tle t, and tify unto t ter ary of eloquence, tyest ?ot and arte, tellectual virtues, tongue of Suada in ts of Practise in esse, and t.quot;-ion.

    quot;For my part,quot; I continued, quot;I consider tability of language a ion of Providence for t of t large, and of auticular. to reason from analogy, ribes of vegetables springing up, ?ouris time, and to dust, to make  ty of nature ead of a blessing. tation, and its surface become a tangled  productions. Language gradually varies, and  fade aings of autted time; otive poock tely beerature.

    Formerly traints on tiplication. orks o be transcribed by ion; tten eit, en erased to make remely perised and unpro?table craft, pursued cude of ters. tion of manuscripts ly, and con?ned almost entirely to monasteries. to tances it may, in some measure, be o ed by tellect of antiquity--t tains of t  been broken up, and modern genius dro tions of paper and t an end to all traints. ter, and enabled every mind to pour itself into print, and diffuse itself over tellectual ream of literature o a torrent--augmented into a river-expanded into a sea. A feuries since ?ve or six s constituted a great library; but o libraries, sucually exist, containing t time busy; and tivity, to double and quadruple tality s among t sremble for posterity. I fear tuation of language  be suf?cient. Criticism may do muc increases erature, and resembles one of tary cion spoken of by economists. All possible encouragement, to tics, good or bad. But I fear all  criticism do  may, ers e, printers , and tably be overstocked   of a lifetime merely to learn tion at t day reads scarcely anyt revieion tle better talogue.quot;

    quot;My very good sir,quot; said ttle quarto, ya drearily in my face, quot;excuse my interrupting you, but I perceive you are rato prose. I e of an aut as I left tation, e temporary. t ed varlet, t knetle of Latin, and noto run try for deer-stealing. I to oblivion.quot;

    quot;On trary,quot; said I, quot;it is oo t very man t terature of ion beyond term of Engliserature. t tability of language because   ted ture. tic trees t imes see on tream, s, penetrating tions of t a, and , and pero perpetuity.

    Sucs of time, retaining in modern use terature of ion to many an indifferent auty. But even o say, is gradually assuming tint of age, and ators,  t up;

    tle quarto began to il at lengt into a plet of laug ;Mig; cried ;mig terature of an age is to be perpetuated by a vagabond deer-stealer! by a man  learning! by a poet! forsoot!quot; And  of laughter.

    I confess t I felt sometled at t of ermined, nevert to give up my point.

    quot;Yes,quot; resumed I positively, quot;a poet; for of all ers  cality. Ote from t es from t, and t and rayer of Nature, eresting. Prose   ers are voluminous and uns expanded into tediousness. But rue poet every terse, touc.

    ts in t language. rates t  striking in nature and art. ures of  is passing before ings, tain t, ts ted in a portable form to posterity. tting may occasionally be antiquated, and require noo be rene trinsic value of tinue unaltered. Cast a look back over terary ory.  vast valleys of dulness, ?lled roversies!  bogs of tions!  dreary es of metaped like beacons on ted s, to transmit t of poetical intelligence from age to age.quot;*

    I  about to launco eulogiums upon ts of to turn my  o inform me t it ime to close t to ing o, but ttle tome ; t looked perfectly unconscious of all t o times since, and o dra into furtion, but in vain; and ook place, or o , been able to discover.