And this similarity, too, may equally be remarked with respect to that noble passion of the lovers of literature and of art for collecting together their mingled treasures; a thirst which was as insatiable in ATTICUS and PEIRESC as in our CRACHERODE and TOWNLEY.[A] We trace the feelings of our literary contemporaries in all ages, and among every people who have ranked with nations far advanced in civilization; for among these may be equally observed both the great artificers of knowledge and those who preserve unbroken the vast chain of human acquisitions.

The one have stamped the images of their minds on their works, and the others have preserved the circulation of this intellectual coinage, this -- Gold of the dead, Which Time does still disperse, but not devour.
[Footnote A: The Rev.C.M.Cracherode bequeathed at his death, in 1799, to the British Museum, the large collection of literature, art, and virtu he had employed an industrious life in collecting.

His books numbered nearly 4500 volumes, many of great rarity and value.

His drawings, many by early Italian masters, and all rare or curious, were deposited in the print-room of the same establishment; his antiquities, &c.

were in a similar way added to the other departments.