XI DIAGNOSIS OF THE BACILLUS LIBRORUM FOR OR a good many years I was deeply in verted to Liberalism, so-called, by an incident which I deem well worth relating. One afternoon I entered a book-shop in High Holborn, and found that the Hon. William E. Gladstone had preceded me thither. I had never seen Mr. Gladstone before. I recognized him now by his resemblance to the caricatures, and by his unlikeness to the portraits which the newspapers had printed. As I entered the shop I heard the bookseller ask: "What books shall I send ?” To this, with a very magnificent sweep of his arms indicating every point of the compass, Gladstone made answer: "Send me those!" With these words he left the place, and I stepped forward to claim a volume which had attracted my favorable attention several days previous. "I beg your pardon, sir," said the bookseller, politely, "but that book is sold." "Sold ?" I cried. "Yes, sir," replied the bookseller, smiling with evident pride; "Mr. Gladstone just bought it; I have n't a book for sale― Mr. Gladstone just bought them all!" The bookseller then proceeded to tell me that whenever Gladstone entered a bookshop he made a practice of buying everything in sight. That magnificent, sweeping gesture of his comprehended everything — theology, history, social science, folk-lore, medicine, travel, biography — everything that came to his net was fish! "This is the third time Mr. Gladstone has visited me," said the bookseller, "and this is the third time he has cleaned me out." "This man is a good man," says I to myself. "So notable a lover of books surely cannot err. The cause of home rule must be a just one after all." |