Excerpt from In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays It is pleasant to be admitted into the birth-chamber of a great idea destined to be translated into action. Bodley proceeds to state the four qualifications he felt himself to possess to do this great bit of work first, the necessary knowledge of ancient and modern tongues and of sundry other sorts of scholastical literature second, purse ability; third, a great store of honourable friends; and fourth, leisure. Bodley's description of the state of the old library as lying in every part ruined and in waste was but too true. 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.