As great philosophers hold that the _esse_ of things is _percipi_, so a
gentleman's furniture exists to be looked at. Nevertheless, sir, there
are some things more fit to be looked at than others; for instance,
there is nothing more fit to be looked at than the outside of a book. It
is, as I may say, from repeated experience, a pure and unmixed pleasure
to have a goodly volume lying before you, and to know that you may open
it if you please, and need not open it unless you please. It is a
resource against _ennui_, if _ennui_ should come upon you. To have the
resource and not to feel the _ennui_, to enjoy your bottle in the
present, and your book in the indefinite future, is a delightful
condition of human existence. There is no place, in which a man can move
or sit, in which the outside of a book can be otherwise than an innocent
and becoming spectacle.--T. L. PEACOCK. _Crotchet Castle._