THE CARE OF BOOKS.

You can tell much of the habits of a man by looking at his books and seeing how be treats them. To students, of all men, the care of books is interesting. To some men, the books become more valuable the longer they are used, to others, their text books are only necessary evils for which they care nothing when their examinations are passed. The first will be glad of a few suggestions which will enable them to preserve their friendly volumes through long grinds. The fingers should not be wet to turn the leaves, nor should the corners be turned down to mark the place. These tend to make dog ears. Rather mark the place with some bookmark. The simplest, and one of the best, is a card as large as a small visiting card. By cutting this twice longitudinally from one end almost to the other, you will have a three-legged book-mark which rides a-straddle on the page, one leg on the page below and two on the page you wish the book to open at. Never put in a soiled playing card, or a stained envelope, or a bit of dirty string or a piece of damp newspaper.

A good serviceable cover of cambric is very good for keeping the outside neat and clean while in active use; but when no longer used this cover should be removed. A shelf full of books covered with cloth or paper is dull and monotonous. People do not care to look at a case of books with such an unattractive dress and as Poole says, "books lose their individuality by being covered." these latter suggestions apply more to the care of numbers of books together. In that connection it has been said that "you should never attempt to classify books on your shelves by the colors of the bindings, or by the sizes of the books themselves. Put the works of an author together, so far as possible, however incongruous their sizes may be. And try to keep books on the same and kindred subjects as close together as may be convenient."