It Is Difficult To Imagine A Situation More Forlorn
And Isolated Than That Of This Man, - A Greek At Seville, With
Scarcely A Single Acquaintance, And Depending For Subsistence On
The Miserable Pittance To Be Derived From Selling A Few Books, For
The Most Part Hawked About From Door To Door.
"What could have
first induced you to commence bookselling in Seville?" said I to
him, as he arrived one sultry day, heated and fatigued, with a
small bundle of books secured together by a leather strap.
Dionysius. - For want of a better employment, Kyrie, I have adopted
this most unprofitable and despised one. Oft have I regretted not
having been bred up as a shoe-maker, or having learnt in my youth
some other useful handicraft, for gladly would I follow it now.
Such, at least, would procure me the respect of my fellow-creatures
inasmuch as they needed me; but now all avoid me and look upon me
with contempt; for what have I to offer in this place that any one
cares about? Books in Seville! where no one reads, or at least
nothing but new romances, translated from the French, and
obscenity. Books! Would I were a Gypsy and could trim donkeys,
for then I were at least independent and were more respected than I
am at present.
Myself. - Of what kind of books does your stock in trade consist?
Dionysius. - Of those not likely to suit the Seville market, Kyrie;
books of sterling and intrinsic value; many of them in ancient
Greek, which I picked up upon the dissolution of the convents, when
the contents of the libraries were hurled into the courtyards, and
there sold by the arrobe.
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