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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: Among the millions of events in this world which cross and re-cross one
another, remarkable coincidences must often occur; and a case exactly similar
to that at the Mazarin Library, happened about the same time in London,
at the French Protestant Church, St. Martin's-le-Grand. Many years ago I
discovered there, in a dirty pigeon hole close to the grate in the vestry,
a fearfully mutilated copy of Caxton's edition of the Canterbury Tales,
with woodcuts. Like the book at Paris, it had long been used,
leaf by leaf, in utter ignorance of its value, to light the vestry fire.
Originally worth at least L800, it was then worth half, and, of course,
I energetically drew the attention of the minister in charge to it, as well
as to another grand Folio by Rood and Hunte, 1480. Some years elapsed,
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