Excerpt from The Library of William Andrews Clark, Jr. Wilde and Wildeiana, Vol. 1 The collector of first and of early editions of books has often been made the object of ridicule and derision by those who in themselves have never felt the thrill of the book-hunter, nor known the inherent pleasure that the mere possession of a rare and curious literary item of one of the world's great writers affords its owner. These critics are of a too materialistic nature, incapable of seeing and feeling the aesthetic, or of loving beauty for beauty's sake alone; they for the most part measure everything by its pecuniary value only; they derive their pleasures from alien pursuits, entirely foreign to those of the bibliophile. They are as far removed from the world in which the latter dwells as is the average man from the field of thought and of exploration that occupies the mind and the research of the astronomer. With these Philistines we have no quarrel; we are satisfied to leave them to their own employments without let or hindrance and without envy of their occupations. And, indeed, so many able articles have been written in defense of the love of book collecting, that it were superfluous here again to reopen the controversy. The fact remains that in the pursuit of his avocation, the bibliophile follows the even tenor of his way regardless of all cavilling critics, deriving pleasure along with hundreds of others and joining with them in a great and enthusiastic company having a common interest in a movement of a highly cultural character. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."