First he tried for a Charity Commissionership; then for the librarianship of the House of Commons.
"Matthew Arnold"
George Saintsbury
The Whig party accepted his partisanship, but had no opportunity of rewarding it, and after receiving the librarianship of the London Institution in Moorfields, he died of apoplexy in 1808. He possessed in almost the highest degree that power of divination, based on accurate knowledge, which distinguishes the scholar, and it is, as has been said, nearly certain that he would have been a brilliant writer in English on any subject he chose to take up.
"A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)"
George Saintsbury
The work's two-part structure is a clue to a proper understanding of the genesis of The Reformed Librarie-Keeper and to its meaning and puts in ironic perspective its usefulness for later academic librarianship.
"The Reformed Librarie-Keeper (1650)"
John Dury