Alas, that Marcus Varro lives
      And is a potent factor yet! 
   Alas, that still his practice gives
      Good men occasion for regret! 
   To yonder bookstall, pri’thee, go,
      And by the ``missing’’ prints and plates
   And frontispieces you shall know
      He lives, and ``extra-illustrates’’!

In justice to the Judge and to myself I should say that neither of us wholly approves the sentiment which the poem I have quoted implies.  We regard Grangerism as one of the unfortunate stages in bibliomania; it is a period which seldom covers more than five years, although Dr. O’Rell has met with one case in his practice that has lasted ten years and still gives no symptom of abating in virulence.

Humanity invariably condones the pranks of youth on the broad and charitable grounds that ``boys will be boys’’; so we bibliomaniacs are prone to wink at the follies of the Grangerite, for we know that he will know better by and by and will heartily repent of the mischief he has done.  We know the power of books so well that we know that no man can have to do with books that presently he does not love them.  He may at first endure them; then he may come only to pity them; anon, as surely as the morrow’s sun riseth, he shall embrace and love those precious things.

So we say that we would put no curb upon any man, it being better that many books should be destroyed, if ultimately by that destruction a penitent and loyal soul be added to the roster of bibliomaniacs.  There is more joy over one Grangerite that repenteth than over ninety and nine just men that need no repentance.

And we have a similar feeling toward such of our number as for the nonce become imbued with a passion for any of the other little fads which bibliomaniac flesh is heir to.  All the soldiers in an army cannot be foot, or horse, or captains, or majors, or generals, or artillery, or ensigns, or drummers, or buglers.  Each one has his place to fill and his part to do, and the consequence is a concinnate whole.  Bibliomania is beautiful as an entirety, as a symmetrical blending of a multitude of component parts, and he is indeed disloyal to the cause who, through envy or shortsightedness or ignorance, argues to the discredit of angling, or Napoleonana, or balladry, or Indians, or Burns, or Americana, or any other branch or phase of bibliomania; for each of these things accomplishes a noble purpose in that each contributes to the glory of the great common cause of bibliomania, which is indeed the summum bonum of human life.

I have heard many decried who indulged their fancy for bookplates, as if, forsooth, if a man loved his books, he should not lavish upon them testimonials of his affection!  Who that loves his wife should hesitate to buy adornments for her person?  I favor everything that tends to prove that the human heart is swayed by the tenderer emotions.  Gratitude is surely one of the noblest emotions of which humanity is capable, and he is indeed unworthy of our respect who would forbid humanity’s expressing in every dignified and reverential manner its gratitude for the benefits conferred by the companionship of books.