far
beyond ours, ready to give us the results of lifetimes of patient
thought, imaginations open to the beauty of the universe."

The lover of good books can never be very lonely; and, no matter where he
is, he can always find pleasant and profitable occupation and the best of
society when he quits work.

Who can ever be grateful enough for the art of printing; grateful enough
to the famous authors who have put their best thoughts where we can enjoy
them at will? There are some advantages of intercourse with great minds
through their books over meeting them in person. The best of them live
in their books, while their disagreeable peculiarities, their
idiosyncrasies, their objectionable traits are eliminated. In their
books we find the authors at their best. Their thoughts are selected,
winnowed in their books. Book friends are always at our service, never
annoy us, rasp or nettle us. No matter how nervous, tired, or
discouraged one may be, they are always soothing, stimulating, uplifting.

We may call up the greatest writer in the middle of the night when we can
not sleep, and he is just as glad to see us as at any other time. We are
not excluded from any nook or corner in the great literary world; we can
visit the most celebrated people that ever lived without an appointment,
without influence, without the necessity of dressing or of observing any
rules of etiquette. We can drop in upon a Milton, a Shakespeare, an
Emerson, a Longfellow, a Whittier without a moment's notice and receive
the warmest welcome.

"You get into society, in the widest sense," says Geikie, "in a great
library, with the huge advantage of needing no introductions, and not
dreading repulses. From that great crowd you can choose what companions
you please, for in the silent levees of the immortals there is no pride,
but the highest is at the service of the lowest, with a grand humility.
You may speak freely with any, without a thought of your inferiority; for
books are perfectly well bred, and hurt no one's feelings by any
discriminations."

"It is not the number of books," says Professor William Mathews, "which a
young man reads that makes him intelligent and well informed, but the
number of well-chosen ones that he has mastered, so that every valuable
thought in them is a familiar friend."

It is only when books have been read and reread with ever deepening
delight, that they are clasped to the heart, and become what Macaulay
foun