I love to lose myself in other men's minds. When I am not walking, I am reading; k. I cannot sit and think. Books think for me. CHARLES LAMB-Last Essays 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. 1. ANDREW LANG-The Library. Ch. I. 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. LANGFORD-The Praise of Books. m. No. 137. p. 8. Detached Thoughts on Books. Books which are no books. j. LONGFELLOW-Seaside and Fireside. Dedication. As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book. 1. GEORGE MACDONALD-The Marquis of 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. Then rush'd to meet the insulting foe: O friends, be men; so act that none may feel An arm as big as thine? a heart as big? j. Cymbeline. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 76. What's brave, what's noble, Let's do it after 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 things serve. ALEX. SMITH-A Life Drama. Sc. 4. 1. Sweet are the little brooks that run O'er pebbles glancing in the sun, L. 3. |