In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary.
a. Goldsmith—The Citizen of the World.
Letter LXXII.
I have ever gained the most profit, and the most pleasure also, from the books which have made me think the most: and, when the difficulties have once been overcome, these are the books which have struck the deepest root, not only in my memory and understanding, but likewise in my affections.
b. 3. C. and A. W. Hare—Guesses at
Truth. P. 458.
Thou art a plant sprung up to wither never, But, 4ike a laurell, to grow green forever.
c. Herrick—Hesperides. To Ha Booke.
The foolishest book is a kind of leaky boat on a sea of wisdom ; some of the wisdom will get in anyhow.
d. O. W. Holmes— The Poet at the
Breakfast-Table. XI.
Medicine for the soul.
e. Inscription over the door of the Library
at Thebes. Diodorus Siculut. 1.49,3.
A man will turn over half a library to make one book. /. Sam' L Johnson—BoswelFt Life of
Johnson. 1775.
Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: he that reads books of science, though without any desire fixed of improvement, will grow more knowing; he that entertains himself with moral or religious treatises, will imperceptibly advance in goodness; the ideas which are often offered to the mind, will at last find a lucky moment when it is disposed to receive them.
g. Sam'L Johnson—The Adventurer.
No. 137.
Pray thee, take care, that tak'st my book in
hand,
To read it well; that is to understand. h. Ben Jonson—Epigram 1.
When I would know thee my
thought looks Upon thy well-made choice of friends and
books;
Then do I love thee, and behold thy ends
In making thy friends books, and thy books
friends,
j. Ben Jonson—Epigram 86.
Books which are no books.
j. Charles Lamb—Last Essay of Elia.
Detached Thoughts on Books.
I love to lose myself in other men's minds.
When I am not walking, I am reading;
I cannot sit and think. Books think for me.
k. Charles Lamb—Last Eiaayi of Elia.
Detached Thoughts on Books and
Reading.
A book is a friend whose face is constantly changing. If you read it when you are recovering from an illness, and return to it years after, it is changed surely, with the change in yourself.
I. Andrew Lang—The Library. Ch. I.
As friends and companions, as teachers and consolers, as recreators and arausers, books are always with us, and always ready to respond to our wants. We can take them with us in our wanderings, or gather them around us at our firesides. In the lonely wilderness, and the crowded city, their spirit will be with us, giving a meaning to the seemingly confused movements of humanity, and peopling the desert with their own bright creations. m. Lanqford—The Praise of Books.
Preliminary Essay.
A wise man will select his books, for he would not wish to class them all under the sacred name of friends. Some can be accepted only as acquaintances. The best books of all kinds are taken to the heart, and cherished as his most precious possessions. Others to be chatted with for a time, to spend a few pleasant hours with, and laid aside, but not forgotten.
n. Langford—The Praise of Books.
Preliminary Essay.
No matter what his rank or position may be, the lover of books is the richest and the happiest of the children of men.
o. Langford—The Praise of Books.
Preliminary Essay.
The love of books is a love which requires neither justification, apology, nor defence. p. Langford—The Praise of Books.
Preliminary Essay.
Books are sepulchres of thought.
q. Longfellow—The Wind Over the
Chimney. St. 8.
Leaving us heirs to amplest heritages
Of all the best thoughts of the greatest sages,
And giving tongues unto the silent dead !
r. Longfellow—Sonnet on Mrs. Kemble't
Reading from Shakespeare.
The pleasant books, that silently among
Our household treasures take familiar places,
And are to us us if a living tongue
Spake from the printed leaves or pictured
faces I
>. Longfellow—Seaside and Fireside.
Dedication. BOOKS.
BOOKS.
67
If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I would answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly come by.
a. Lowell—Before the U. S. Senate
Committee on Patents, Jan. 29, 1886.
What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticised for us!
b. LowMj.—My Study Windows. Library
of Old Authors.
Gentlemen use books as Gentlewomen handle their flowers, who in the morning stick them in their heads, and at night gtrawe them at their heeles.
e. Ltly—Euphues. To the Gentlemen
Reader!.
All books grow homilies by time; they are
Temples, at once, and Landmarks.
d. Bolweb-lytton—The Souls of Books.
St. 4. L. 1.
Hark, the world so loud, And they, the movers of the world, so still!
e. Bulweb-lytton—The Souls of Books.
St. 3. L. 14.
In you are sent
The types of Truths whose life is The To Come ;
In you soars up the Adam from the fall;
In you the Futubb as the Past is given—
Ev'n in our death ye bid us hail our birth ;—
Unfold these pages, and behold the Heaven,
Without one grave-stone left upon the Earth.
/. Bulweb-lytton—The Souls of Books.
St. 5. L. 11.
Laws die. Books never.
g. Bulweb-lytton—Richelieu,
Act, I. Sc. 2.
There is no Past, so long as Books shall live! A. Bulweb-lytton—The Souls of Books.
St. 4. L. 9.
The Wise
(Minstrel or Sage,) out of their books are clay; But in their books, as from their graves they
rise.
Angels—that, side by side, upon our way, Walk with and warn us 1 i. Bulweb- LYtton— The Souls of Books.
St. 3. L. 9.
We call some books immortal! Do they livef
If so, believe me, Time hath made them pure.
In Books, the veriest wicked rest in peace.
j. Bclwkb-lYtton—The Souls of Books.
St. 3. L. 22.
That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it.
t. Jf Acaulay—On Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress. 1831
As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.
I. Geobge Macdonald—The Marquis of Lostie. Ch. XLII.
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. m. Milton—Areopagitica.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.
n. Milton—Areopagitica.
Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.
o. Milton—Areopagitica.
Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself. p. Milton—Paradise Regained. Bk. IV.
L. 327.
For books are as meats and viands are; some of good, some of evil substance. q. Milton—Areopagitica.
Silent companions of the lonely hour,
Friends, who can alter or forsake,
Who for inconstant roving have no power, And all neglect, perforce, must calmly take. r. Mrs. Norton—Sonnet. To My Books.
Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole.
s. FopE—Dunciad. Bk. I. L. 127.
Chiefs of elder Art!
Teachers of wisdom! who would once beguile
My tedious hours, and lighten every toil,
I now resign you.
t. William Roscoe—Poetical Works.
To my Books on Parting vtith Tlicm.
Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
u. Scott—The Monastery. Vol. I.
Ch. XII.
And deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book. v. The Tempest. Act. V. Sc. 1. L. 56.
I had rather than forty shillings, I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here. w. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act I.
Sc. 1. L. 204.
Keep * * * thy pen from lenders' books,
and defy the foul fiend. x. King Lear. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 100. 68
BOOKS.
BORES.
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnished me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
a. The Tempest. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 165.
O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagere of my speaking breast;
Who plead for love and look for recompense
More than that tongue that more hath more
express'd.
6. Sonnet XXIII.
0, sir, we quarrel in print, by the book; as you have books for good manners:
c. At You Like It. Act V. Sc. 4. L. 94.
Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book.
d. Love's Labour's Lost. Act IV. Sc. 2.
L. 24.
That book in many's eyes doth share the
glory. That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
e. Romeo and Juliet. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 91.
We turn'd o'er many books together:
/. Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1.
L. 156.
Their books of stature small they take in hand,
Which with pellucid horn secured are;
To save from finger wet the letters fair.
g. Shenstone—The Schoolmistrets. St. 18.
You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.
A. Sheridan—School for Scandal. Act I.
Sc. 1.
Some books are drenched sands,
On which a great soul's wealth lies all in
heaps, Like a wrecked argosy.
t. Alexander Smith—A Life Drama.
Sc. 2.
Books, the children of the brain.
j. Swift— Tale of a Tub. Sec. I.
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
Jt. Sir Wm. Temple-^-.Ancient and
Modern Learning.
But every page having an ample marge,
And every marge enclosing in the midst
A square of text that looks a little blot.
I. Tennyson—Idylls of Die King. Merlin
and Vivien. L. 669.
Thee will I sing in comely wainscot bound
And golden verge enclosing thee around ;
The faithful horn before, from age to age
Preserving thy invulnerable page.
Behind thy patron saint in armor shines
With sword and lance to guard the sacred
lines;
Th' instructive handle's at the bottom fixed Lest wrangling critics should pervert the text, m. Tickell—The Hornbook.
A small number of choice books are sufficient.
n. Voltaibe—A Philosophical Dictionary. Books. Vol. II. Sec. III.
They are for company the best friends, in Doubts Counsellors, in Damps Comforters, Time's Prospective, the Home Traveller's Ship or Horse, the busie Man's best Recreation, the Opiate of idle Weariness, the Mindes best Ordinary,Nature's Garden and Seed-plot of Immortality.
0. Bulstrode WHITELOCK—Zootamia.
1654.
Books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good : Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and
blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow. p. Wordsworth—Poetical Works.
Personal Talk.
Some future strain, in which the muse shall
tell How science dwindles, and how volumes
swell.
How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun. q. Young—Love of Fame. Satire VII.
L. 96.
Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.
r. Young—Love of Fame. Satire II.
L. 83.
BORES.
Society is now one polished horde,
Formed of two mighty tribes, the Rores and
Bored.
1. Byron—Don Juan. Canto XIII.
St. 95.
The bore is usually considered a harmless creature, or of that class of irrational bipeds who hurt only themselves.
t. Maria Edgewobth—Thoughts on Bores.
Got the ill name of augurs, because they were bores. n. Lowell—A Fable for Critics. L. 55.
BORES.
BRAVERY.
69
That old hereditary bore, The steward, o. Rogers—Italy. A Character. L. 13.
Again I hear that creaking step! —
He's rapping at the door!
Too well I know the boding sound
That ushers in a bore.
6. J. G. Saxe—My Familiar.
He says a thousand pleasant things,—
But never says " Adieu.'
c. J. G. Saxe—My Familiar.
O, he's as tedious As is a tir'd horse, a railing wife; Worse than a smoky house; I had rather live With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me, In any summer-house in Christendom.
d. Henry IV. Pt. I. Act III. Sc. I.
L. 159.
BORROWING.
Great collections of books are subject to certain accidents besides the damp, the worms, and the rats; one not less common is that of the borrowers, not to say a word of the pur- loineri.
e. Isaac Disraeli—Curiosities of
Literature. The Bibliomania.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
/. Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 75.
What question can be here? Your own true
heart
Must needs advise you of the only part:
That may be claim'd again which was but
lent,
And should be yielded with no discontent,
Nor surely can we find herein a wrong,
That it was left us to enjoy it long.
g. Richard Chenevix Trench—The
Lent Jewel*.
Who goeth a-borrowing,
Goeth a-sorrowing.
A. T0SSEH— Five Hundred Points of Good
Husbandry. June's Abstract.
Who borrow much, then fairly make it
known,
And damn it with improvements of their own. ». Young—Love of Fame. Satire III.
L. 23.
BRAVERY.
Brave men were living before Agamemnon. j. Byeon—Don Juan. Canto I. St. 5.
The truly brave, When they behold the brave oppressed with
odds,
Are touched with a desire to shield and save:—
A mixture of wild beasts and demi-gods
Are they—now furious as the sweeping wave,
Now moved with pity ; even as sometimes
nods
The rugged tree unto the summer wind, Compassion breathes along the savage mind. k. Byron—Don Juan. Canto VIII.
St. 106.
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, ^
By all their country's wishes blest!
I. Collins—Ode written in 1746.
Toll for the brave I
The brave that are no more,
m. Cowper—On the Loss of the Royal
George.
General Taylor never surrenders.
n. Tnoe. L. Chittenden—Reply to Gen.
Santa Anna. Buena Vista.
Feb. 22,1847.
The brave man seeks not popular applause, .
Nor, overpower'd with arms, deserts his cause; \f
Unsham'd, though foil'd, he does the best he
can,
Force is of brutes, but honor is of man.
o. Dryden—Palawan and Arcite. Bk. III.
L. 2,015.
The god-like hero sate
On his imperial throne:
His valiant peers were placed around,
Their brows with roses and with myrtles
bound
(So should desert in arms be crowned).
The lovely Thais, by his side,
Sate like a blooming Eastern bride
In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair!
None but the brave,
None but the brave,
None but the brave deserve the fair.
p. Dryden—Alexander's Feast. St. 1.
Then rush'd to meet the insulting foe :
They took the spear, but left the shield.
q. Philip Freneau—To the Memory of the
Brave Americans (who fell at Eutaw
Springs).
The brave
Love mercy, and delight to save.
r. Gay—Fable. The Lion, Tiger and
Traveller. L. 33.
0 friends, be men; so act that none may feel
Ashamed to meet the eyes of other men.
Think each one of his children and his wife,
His home, his parents, living yet or dead.
For them, the absent ones, I supplicate,
And bid you rally here, and scorn to fly.
*. Homer— Iliad. Bk. XV. L. 843.
Bryant's trans.
70
BRAVERY.
BROOKS.
Without a sign his sword the brave man
draws, And asks no omen but his country's cause.
0. Homer—Iliad. Bk. XII. L. 283.
Pope's trans.
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.
6. La Rochefoucauld. Maxims. 216.
There's a brave fellow! There's a man of
pluck!
A man who's not afraid to say his say,
Though a whole town's against him.
c. Longfellow—Chriitus. Pt. III.
John Endicott. Act II. Sc. 2.
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.
d. Macaulay—Lays of Ancient Rome.
Horatiui. 70.
In adversity it is easy to despise life; the truly brave man is he who can endure to be miserable.
«. Mabtial. Bk. XI. Ep. LVI.
'Tis more brave
To live, than to die.
/. Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton)
Lucile. Pt. II. Canto VI. St. 11.
Who combats bravely is not therefore brave: He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave. g. Pope—Moral Essays. Epistle I. L. 115.
Come one, come all! this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I.
h. Scott—Lady of the Lake. Canto V.
St. 10.
He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest; lie lasted long ;
But on us both did haggish age steal on
And wore us out of act.
». All's Well That Ends Well. Act I.
Sc. 2. L. 20.
What art thou ? Have not I
An arm as big as thine? a heart as big?
Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
My dagger in my mouth.
j. Cymbeline. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 76.
What's brave, what's noble,
Let's do it nftor the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us.
k. Antony and Cleopatra. Act IV.
Sc. 15. L. 86.
A brave soul is a thing which all tilings serve.
1. Alsx. Smith—A Life Drama. Sc. 4.
It is besides necessary that whoever is brave,
should he n man of great soul. m. Cicf.ro—7V
What, shall one of us.
That struck the foremost man of all this world
But for supporting robbers, shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes ?
s. Julius Gxsar. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 22.
All men have their price. t. Ascribed to Walpole.
BROOKS.
The streams, rejoiced that winter's work is
done,
Talk of to-morrow's cowslips as they run.
M. Ebezenkh Elliott—The Village
Patriarch. Love and Other Poems.
Spring.
From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.
V. Gray— The l*rngress of Poesy. I. 1.
L.3.
Sweet arc the little brooks that run
O'er pebbles glancing in the sun,
Sinking in soothing tones.
t». Hood—Town and Country. St. 9.
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