OF A

LARGE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION

OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN BOOKS,

NEW AND SECOND HAND,

IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF

LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART,

INCLUDING

MANY VALUABLE AND RARE WORKS

IN

Theology and Ecclesiastical History,

METAPHYSICS, MORAL PHILOSOPHY, JURISPRUDENCE, POLITICAL ECONOMY, FINE
ARTS, MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES, GEOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, MEDICINE,
LANGUAGE, POETRY, FICTION, PHILOLOGY, VOYAGES AND
TRAVELS, HISTORY, HERALDRY, BIOGRAPHY, ASTRONOMY,
ASTROLOGY, AND THE OCCULT SCIENCES;

Embracing Works which treat on everything which is

MIRACULOUS, QUEER, ODD, STRANGE, SUPERNATURAL, WHIMSICAL, ABSURD, OUT
OF THE WAY AND UNACCOUNTABLE!

AT THE CHEAP ANCIENT AND MODERN BOOKSTORE,
THE MORAL CENTRE OF THE INTELLECTUAL WORLD,

146 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.

MDCCCXLVIII.

"One drachma for a good book, and a thousand talents for a true friend :-
So standeth the market where scarce is ever costly:

Yea, were the diamonds of Golconda common as shingles on the shore,
A ripe apple would ransom kings before a shining stone:
And so, were a wholesome book, as rare as an honest friend,

To choose the book be mine: the friend let another take.

For altered looks and jealousies and fears have none entrance there :
The silent volume listeneth well, and speaketh when thou listest :

It praiseth thy good without envy, it chideth thine evil without malice,
It is to thee thy waiting slave, and thine unbending teacher.
Need to humor no caprice, need to bear with no infirmity,
Thy sin, thy slander, or neglect, chilleth not, quencheth not, its love;
Unalterably speaketh it the truth, warped nor by error nor interest;
For a good book is the best of friends, the same to-day and forever.

"O books, ye monuments of mind, concrete wisdom of the wisest ;
Sweet solaces of daily life; proofs and results of immortality;
Trees yielding all fruits, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations,
Groves of knowledge, where all may eat, nor fear a flaming sword;
Gentle comrades, kind advisers; friends, comforts, treasures:

Helps, governments, diversities of tongues; who can weigh your worth ?—
To walk no longer with the just; to be driven from the porch of science;

To bid long adieu to those intimate ones, poets, philosophers and teachers;

To see no record of the sympathies which bind thee in communion with the good;
To be thrust from the feet of Him, who spake as never man spake;

To have no avenue to heaven but the dim aisle of superstition;

To live as an Esquimaux, in legarthy; to die as the Mohawk, in ignorance;

O what were life, but a blank? what were death, but a terror?

What were man but a burden to himself? what were mind, but misery?

Yea, let another Omar burn the full library of knowledge,

And the broad world may perish in the flames, offered on the ashes of its wisdom!"

S. W. BENEDICT,

Ster. & Print., 16 Spruce St., N. Y.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IN issuing this first part of the general Catalogue of his books, the subscriber thinks it may be necessary briefly to mention the purposes for which his establishment has been instituted, and the principles on which it is conducted. A house in which literary persons might find the best works in every language, particularly those which are difficult to be procured at a reasonable price, has long been a desideratum in our country, and one the want of which has been severely felt by those whose tastes led them to literary pursuits, but whose resources would not enable them to procure many works which were absolutely necessary to them. To obviate this difficulty, he has made it his particular study to collect such works as are scarce and valuable, and he flatters himself that he has succeeded in accumulating the largest collection of rare, curious, and valuable books that has ever been offered for sale on this continent. Many of the works indeed which will be found recorded in this and the succeeding numbers of his Catalogue, not only cannot be procured at any other store in this country, but are difficult to be met with even in the great book marts of Europe. Wherever it was possible to distinguish, he has paid the greatest attention to the choice of the best Editions.

His establishment presents another distinguishing feature in his stock of SECOND HAND BOOKS, which is larger and more complete than any other in America. But little attention has hitherto been bestowed by American booksellers on this branch; they have looked more to the appearance of their stock than to its quality; content if they could realize large profits from gilded trash. It is certain, nevertheless, that nothing is better calculated to advance the cause of literature and science, than the sale of second hand works, by which the student is enabled to procure three or four books to the one he could before purchase.

The grand characteristic of his establishment, however, is its CHEAPNESS. It is in this particularly that he excels; possessing extraordinary advantages in the purchase of his stock, he offers his books at extremely low prices, preferring small profits and ready sales, to large advances on cost, and a slow stock. A reference to the prices in this Catalogue will amply prove the truth of this assertion.

His stock of new books is very large, and is continually increasing. It embraces a valuable collection of French, Spanish, German and Italian works, as well as English and American. Any work on sale can be had from him