Book-plates / [William John Hardy].

  • Hardy, William John, 1857-1919.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Book-plates / [William John Hardy]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Under the name ‘ H. Macdonald’ we find : ‘Fear not, nor soil not; Read all, but spoil not.’ ‘ A good book is a good friend ; he who would injure the one deserves not the respect of the other.’ There is something almost pathetic in the exclama- tion which Mr. John Marks makes his volumes utter : ‘Gentle reader, take me home; I belong to John Marks, 20, Cook Street, Cork ; ’ and then the evil- minded borrower is reminded of the scriptural con- demnation of his kind by reference to ‘ Psalm xxxvii. ver. 21.’ Before this comes— ‘ADVICE FOR THE MILLION. Neither a borrower or a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend. And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. True for you, Mr. Shakespeare ! Moral. Of all books and chattels that ever I lent, I never got back five-and-twenty per cent. Fac, my Bredern ! ’ We may presume from this that Mr. John Marks tried to be funny, and from his composition getting into print flattered himself that he had succeeded. One more example of these warnings to borrowers, and we have done with the subject. Lord de Tabley fixes the date of it as 1820, but surely it must be the composition of some eleventh century reprobate,