Mute with astonishment th' assembly gaze: But why, ye Romans? Whence your mute amaze?

All this is natʼral: Nature bade him rend -
An enemy; she bids him spare a friend.

MANUALE

TYPOGRAPHIA OMNI ANTIQUIUS, NULLI USPIAM LIBRORUM INSERTUM CATALOGO.

EXIGUUS liber est, muliebri creber in usų,
Per se qui dici bibliotheca potest.
Copia verborum non est, sed copia rerum;
Copia (quod nemo deneget) utilior.

Rubris consuitur pannis; fors texitur auro;
Bis sexta ad summum pagina claudit opus.
Nil habet a tergo titulive aut nominis; intus
Thesauros artis servat, et intus opes:

Intus opes, quæ nympha sinu pulcherrima gestet,
Quas nive candidior tractet ametque manus,

Quando instrumentum præsens sibi postulat usus, Majusve, aut operis pro ratione, minus.

Et

genere et modulo diversa habet arma, gradatim

Digesta, ad numeros attenuata suos.

Primum enchiridii folium majuscula profert,

Qualia quæ

blæso est lumine poscat anus.

Quod sequitur folium, matronis arma ministrat,

Dicere quæ magnis proximiora licet.

Tertium, item quartum, quintumque minuscula supplet

Sed non ejusdem singula quæque loci.

Disposita ordinibus certis, discrimina servant;
Quæ sibi conveniant, seligat unde nurus.

Ultima quæ restant quæ multa minutula nympha
Dicit, sunt sexti divitæ folii.

Quantillo in spatio doctrina O quanta latescit! Quam tamen obscuram vix brevitate voces. Non est interpres, non est commentarius ullus, Aut index; tam sunt omnia perspicua.

Ætatem ad quamvis, ad captum ita fingitur om

nem,

Ut nihil auxilii postulet inde liber.

Millia librorum numerat perplura; nec ullum
Bodlæi huic jactat bibliotheca parem.
Millia Cæsareo numerat quoque munere Granta,
Hæc tamen est inter millia tale nihil.

Non est, non istis author de millibus unus,
Cui tanta ingenii vis, vel acumen, inest

A MANUAL

MORE ANCIENT THAN THE ART OF PRINTING, AND NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY CATALOGUE.

THERE is a book, which we may call

(Its excellence is such)

Alone a library, though small;

The ladies thumb it much.

Words none, things num'rous it contains:

And, things with words compar'd,

Who needs be told, that has his brains,

Which merit most regard?

Ofttimes its leaves of scarlet hue

A golden edging boast;

And open'd, it displays to view

Nor name, nor title, stamp'd behind,

Adorns its outer part;

But all within 'tis richly lin'd,

A magazine of art.

The whitest hands that secret hoard

Oft visit: and the fair

Preserve it in their bosoms stor❜d,

As with a miser's care.

Thence implements of ev'ry size,

And form'd for various use,

(They need but to consult their eyes)They readily produce.

The largest and the longest kind

Possess the foremost page,

A sort most needed by the blind,
Or nearly such from age.

The full-charg'd leaf, which next ensues, Presents in bright array

The smaller sort, which matrons use,

Not quite so blind as they.

The third, the fourth, the fifth supply

What their occasions ask,

Who with a more discerning eye

Perform a nicer task.