Books. The table in Anthony's room was covered with them. The five folio volumes of Bayle, in the English edition of 1738. Rickaby's translation of the Summa contra Gentiles. De Gourmont's Problème du Style. The Way of Perfection. Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. Three volumes of Byron's Letters. The works of St. John of the Cross in Spanish. The plays of Wycherley. Lee's History of Sacerdotal Celibacy.
If only, Anthony thought as he came in from his walk, if only one had two sets of eyes! Janus would be able to read Candide and the Imitation simultaneously. Life was so short, and books so countlessly many. He pored voluptuously over the table, opening at random now one volume, now another.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. 1285)
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, acc. no. WA1940.2.77)