In his unceasing occupations the only repose he requires, consists not in quitting, but in changing them.  Every day produces its discovery; every day in the life of a man of letters may furnish a multitude of emotions and of ideas.  For him there is a silence amidst the world; and in the scene ever opening before him, all that has passed is acted over again, and all that is to come seems revealed as in a vision.  Often his library is contiguous to his chamber,[A] and this domain “parva sed apta,” this contracted space, has often marked the boundary of the existence of the opulent owner, who lives where he will die, contracting his days into hours; and a whole life thus passed is found too short to close its designs.  Such are the men who have not been unhappily described by the Hollanders as lief-hebbers, lovers or fanciers, and their collection as lief-hebbery, things of their love.  The Dutch call everything for which they are impassioned lief-hebbery; but their feeling being much stronger than their delicacy, they apply the term to everything, from poesy and picture to tulips and tobacco.  The term wants the melody of the languages of genius; but something parallel is required to correct that indiscriminate notion which most persons associate with that of collectors.

[Footnote A:  The contiguity of the CHAMBER to the LIBRARY is not the solitary fancy of an individual, but marks the class.  Early in life, when in France and Holland, I met with several of these amateurs, who had bounded their lives by the circle of their collections, and were rarely seen out of them.  The late Duke of ROXBURGH once expressed his delight to a literary friend of mine, that he had only to step from his sleeping apartment into his fine library; so that he could command, at all moments, the gratification of pursuing his researches while he indulged his reveries.  The Chevalier VERHULST, of Bruxelles, of whom we have a curious portrait prefixed to the catalogue of his pictures and curiosities, was one of those men of letters who experienced this strong affection for his collections, and to such a degree, that he never went out of his house for twenty years; where, however, he kept up a courteous intercourse with the lovers of art and literature.  He was an enthusiastic votary of Rubens, of whom he has written a copious life in Dutch, the only work he appears to have composed.]

It was fancifully said of one of these lovers, in the style of the age, that, “His book was his bride, and his study his bride-chamber.”  Many have voluntarily relinquished a public station and their rank in society, neglecting even their fortune and their health, for the life of self-oblivion of the man of letters.  Count DE CAYLUS expended a princely income in the study and the encouragement of Art.  He passed his mornings among the studios of artists, watching their progress, increasing his collections, and closing his day in the retirement