Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's way,Lowndes: William Thomas Lowndes' The Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature, published in 1834.
That I may truths eternal seek;
I need protecting care to-day.
My purse is light, my flesh is weak;
So banish from my erring heart
All baleful appetites and hints
Of Satan's fascinating art —
Of first editions and of prints.
Direct me in some godly walk
Which leads away from bookish strife,
That I with pious deed and talk
May extra-illustrate my life.
But if, O Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To keep me in temptation's way,
I humbly ask that I may be
Most notably beset to-day.
Let my temptation be a book
Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep,
Whereon when other men shall look,
They'll wail to know I got it cheap.
Oh, let it such a volume be
As in rare copperplates abounds ! —
Large paper, clean, and fair to see.
Uncut, unique — unknown to Lowndes.
“I do not think altogether the worse of a book for having survived the author a generation or two. I have more confidence in the dead than the living.” — Hazlitt
7 March 2014
The Bibliomaniac's Prayer
Eugene Field, "The Bibliomaniac's Prayer," Book-Song, ed. Gleeson White (London: Elliot Stock, 1893), pp. 52-53: