e. m. ዝ n. 'Tis pleasant sure to see one's name in print; A book's a book, although there's nothing in't. BYRON--English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 51. All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been * * is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession of men. b. CARLYLE-Heroes and Hero Worship. Lecture V. If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that. c. CARLYLE-Heroes and Hero Worship. Lecture II. If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all. d. CARLYLE-- Essays. Goethe's Helena. In the poorest cottage are Books: is one Book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is Deepest in him. CARLYLE- Essays. Corn-Law Rhymes. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all , who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am, no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling. If the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare, to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine fyr want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society, in the place where I live. f. CHANNING-On Self-Culture. It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. g. CHANNING— On Self-Cullure. And as for me, though than I konne but lyte, On bokes for to rede I me delyte, And to hem yeve I feyth and ful credence, And in myn herte have hem in reverence So hertely, that ther is game noon, That fro my bokes maketh me to goon, But yt be seldome on the holy day, Save, certeynly, whan that the monthe of May Is comen, and that I here the foules synge, And that the floures gynnen for to sprynge, Farwel my boke, and my devocion. h. CHAUCER-Legende of Goode Women. Prologue. Line 29. For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe Lino 22. It is saying less than the truth to affirm, that an excellent book (and the remark holds almost equally good of a Raphael as of a Milton) is like a well-chosen and well-tended fruit tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. With the due and natural intervals, we may recur to it year after year, and it will supply the same nourishment and the same gratification, if only we ourselves return to it with the same healthful appetite. j. COLERIDGE-Literary Remains. Prospectus of Lectures. Books should, not business, entertain the light, And sleep, as undisturb'd as death, the night. k. COWLEY- Of Myself. Books cannot always please; however good; Minds are not ever craving for their food. 1. CRABBE-— The Bourough. Letter XXIV. Schools. The monument of vanished mindes, Sir WM. DAVENANT— Gondibert. Bk, II. Canto V. Remember, we know well only the great nations whose books we possess; of the others we know nothing, or but little. Dawson – Address on opening the Birmingham Free Library. Oct. 26, 1866. Books should to one of these four ends con duce, 0. Sir John DENHAM-Of Prudence. Literature. Libraries. 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 purloiners. 9. Isaac DISRAELI --- Curiosities of Literature. The Bibliomania. Living more with books than with men, which is often becoming better acquainted with man himself, though not always with men, the man of letters is more tolerant of opinions than opinionists are among themselves. Isaac DISRAELI -- Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. XXI. Living with Books. 38 BOOKS. BOOKS. m. c. n. In every man's memory, with the hours when life culminated are usually associated certain books which met his views. b. EMERSON--Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality. There are many virtues in books—but the essential value is the adding of knowledge to our stock, by the record of new facts, and, better, by the record of intuitions, which distribute facts, and are the formulas which supersede all histories. EMERSON--Letters and Social Aims. Persian Poetry. We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise. d. EMERSON--Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality. Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost. FULLER— The Holy and the Profane State. Of Books. Some books are only cursorily to be tasted of. f. FULLER— The Holy and the Profane State. Of Books. A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life. g. GIBBON—Letter to Lord Sheffield. I have even 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. l. J. C. and A. W. HARE—Guesses at Truth. Starres are poore books, and oftentimes do misse; This book of starres lights to eternal blisse. HERBERT-- The Temple. The Holy Scriptures. Thou art a plant sprung up to wither never, But, like a laurell, to grow green for ever. HERRICK – Hesperides. To His Booke. The foolishest book is a kind of leaky boat on a sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in anyhow. HOLMES—- The Poet at the Breakfast Table. Ch. XI. Medicine for the soul. p. Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes. Diodorus Simlus. 1. 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 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. 9. SAM'L JOHNSON--The Adventurer. No. 137. 0. e. Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly-should still be new. h. GOLDSMITH–The Citizen of the World. Letter LXXV. my I armed her against the censures of the world, showed her that books were sweet unreproaching companions to the miserable, and that if they could not bring us to enjoy life, they would at least teach us to endure it. i. GOLDSMITH – Vicar of Wakefield. Ch. XXII. In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary: j. GOLDSMITH— The Citizen of the World. Letter LXXV. Of every wisdom the parfit The highe god of his spirit Yaf to men in erthe here Upon the forme and the matere Of that he wolde make hem wise. And thus cam in the first apprise Of bokes and of alle good Through hem, that whilom understood The lore, which to hem was yive, Wherof these other, that now live, Ben every day to lerne new. k. JOHN GOWER— Confessio Amantis. Bk. IV. Pray thee, take care, that tak'st my book in hand, To read it well; that is to understand. BEN. JONSON-- Epigram 1. When I would know thee 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. BEN JONSON-- Epigram 86. Books which are no books. t. LAMB-Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading. 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 tor me. LAMB-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. ANDREW LANG— The Library. Ch. I. u. Gentlemen use books as Gentlewomen handle their flowers, who in the morning stick them in their heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles. g. LYLY-Euphues. To the Gentlemen Readers. All books grow homilies by time; they are Temples, at once, and Landmarks. h. BULWER-LYTTON — The Soul of Bookcs. Pt. IV. Line 1. a. Hark, the world so loud, And they, the movers of the world, so still! i. BULWER-LYTTON— The Soul of Books. Pt. III, Line 14. As companions and acquaintances books are with out rivals; and they are companions and acquaintances to be had at all times and under all circumstances. They are never out when you knock at the door; are never "not at home" when you call. In the lightest as well as in the deepest moods they may be applied to, and will never be found wanting. In the good sense of the phrase, they are all things to all men, and are faithful alike to all. LANGFORD— The Praise of Books. Preliminary Essay. As friends and companions, as teachers and consolers, as recreators and amusers 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. b. LANGFORD-- 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. LANGFORD--The Praise of Books. Preliminary Essay. Books are also among man's truest consolers. In the hour of affliction, trouble, or sorrow, he can turn to them with confidence and trust. d. LANGFORD - The Praise of Books. Preliminary Essay. Strong e. Books are friends, and what friends they are! Their love is deep and unchanging; their patience inexhaustible; their gentleness perennial; their forbearance unbounded; and their sympathy without selfishness. as man, and tender as woman, they welcome you in every mood, and never turn from you in distress. LANGFORD- The Praise of Books. Preliminary Essay. Books are friends which every man may call his own. The friendship of books never dies; it grows by use, increases by distribution, and possesses an immortality of perpetual youth. It is the friendship, not of dead things" but of ever-living souls; and books are friends who, under no circumstances, are ever applied to in vain. They can be relied on, whoever else, or whatever else may fail. f. LANGFORD— The Praise of Books. Preliminary Essay. A good book is the precious lifeblood of a masterspirit, embalmed and troasured up on purpose to a life beyond. p. MILTON— Areopagitica. As good almost kill a man as 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. 9. MILTON--Areopagitica. 40 BOOKS. BOOKS. 0. a. Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. MILTON—Areopagitica. For books are as meats and viands are; some of good, some of evil substance. b. 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. Mrs. NORTON--Sonnet. To My Books. Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll, In pleasing memory of all he stole. d. POPE--Dunciad. Bk. I. Line 127. c. r. u. That book, in many's eyes doth show the glory, That in gold clasps, locks in the golden story. Romeo and Juliet. Act I. Sc. 3. We turn'd o'er many books together. p. Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin. 9. SHERIDAN-School for Scandal. Act I. Sc. 1. Books like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed. Sir WM. TEMPLE- Ancient and Modern Learning. But every page having an ample marge, An every marge enclosing in the midst A square of text that looks a little blot. TENNYSON-Idyls of the King. Vivien. Line 520. A small number of choice books are sufficient. t. VOLTAIRE-A Philosophical Dictionary. Books. Sec. 1. Books are made from books. VOLTAIRE--A Philosophical Dictionary. Books. Sec. 1. It is with books as with men; a very small number play a great part; the rest are confounded with the multitude. VOLTAIRE-A Philosophical Dictionary. Books. Sec. 1. You despise books; you whose whole lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure, or in indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books. VOLTAIRE-- A Philosophical Dictionary. Books. Sec. 1. 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 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. y. WORDSWORTH--Poetical Works. Personal Talk. Some future strain, in which the muse shall V. Within that awful volume lies Ch. XII. No book can be so good, as to be profitable when negligently read. g. SENECA. h. The Tempest. Act V. Sc. 1. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book. i. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act I. Sc. 1. Keep thy pen from lender's books, and defy the foul fiend. j. King Lear. Act III. Sc. 4. Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnished me with volumes that I prize above my dukedom. k. The Tempest. Act I. Sc. 2. 0, let my books be then the eloquence And dumb presager of my speaking breast; Who plead for love, and look for recom pense, More than that tongue that more hath more express'd. 1. Sonnet XXIII. 0, sir, we quarrel in print, by the book ; as you have books for good manners. As You Like It. Act V. Sc. 4. 2. tell m. How science dwindles, and how volumes swell. How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun. Young- Love of Fame. Satire VII. Line 94. BRAVERY. Better to sink beneath the shock Than moulder piecemeal on the rock! g. BYRON--The Giaour. Line 969. 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. h. BYRON-Don Juan. Canto VIII. St. 106. BROOKS. The streams, rejoiced that winter's work is done, Talk of to-morrow's cowslips as they run. t. EBENEZER ELLIOTT— The Village Patriarch. Love and Other Poeins. Spring. Sweet are the little brooks that run O'er pebbles glancing in the sun, Singing to soothing tones. Hood-Town and Country. St. 10. Thou hastenest down between the hills to meet me at the road, The secret scarcely lisping of thy beautiful abode Among the pines and mosses of yonder shadowy height, Where thou dost sparkle into song, and fill the woods with light. LUCY LARCOM-Friend Brook. Toll for the brave- George. So that my life be brave, what though not long? j. DRUMMOND-Sonnet. And dashed through thick and thin. Pt. II. Line 414. |