Excerpt from The Fine Private Library of the Hon. John M. Patterson of Philadelphia: Consisting of Association Books of the Most Personal and Interesting Nature; Autograph Letters, Manuscripts and Drawings of Value; An Unusual Collection of the First Editions of Charles Dickens, With Manuscripts and Autograph Letters

Library containing a second folio of Shakespeare as well as a copy of John Stow 's Annales, 1631, which belonged to Charles I, and ranging to a collection of George Moore's firsts, surely furnishes literary food for all tastes. John M. Patterson, President Judge of Common Pleas Court No. 1, of Philadelphia, has been an ardent and a successful collector of rare books for twenty years, and the result of his thought and judgment is here with presented for a verdict from his fellow book-lovers.

As he has explained it to the composer of this introduction, he believes that the life of collecting is based mainly on the ability to purchase and, naturally, that there can be no buying unless some thing is sold. Judge Patterson also believes that the emotions brought into play in forming a library are equally divided between the sensation of pursuit and that of possession. There now remains the pleasure - and enlightenment - of dispersal. He is anxious, very anxious, in fact, to ascertain just what sort of a collector he has been.

There is always some danger that superlative expressions may be utilized in describing the units of a fine library. The peril is somewhat greater when the writer has been a factor in forming the collection. However, it can be said justly that the books and autographs here presented for consideration are far above those in the average collection. Most of the books are high spots from a literary and a collector's standpoint. Original and fine states predominate, and the associations connected with many of the books are prime, as for instance with the Shakespeare folio already referred to. This is a rare copy which belonged to Lady Ashhur ton, and was by her loaned to Thomas Carlyle for his use when he was writing Herods and Hero Worship.'

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