the virgins of
Great Britain exceedingly nimble-fingered in their
business."

CHAPTER XXIII.

NEEDLEWORK ON BOOKS.

"And often did she look
On that which in her hand she bore,
In velvet bound and broider'd o'er--
Her breviary book."

Marmion.

"Books are ours,
Within whose silent chambers treasure lies
Preserved from age to age--
These hoards of truth we can unlock at will."

Wordsworth.

Deep indeed are our obligations for those treasures which "we can
unlock at will:" treasures of far more value than gold or gems, for
they oftentimes bestow that which gold cannot purchase--even
forgetfulness of sorrow and pain. Happy are those who have a taste for
reading and leisure to indulge it. It is the most beguiling solace of
life: it is its most ennobling pursuit. It is a magnificent thing to
converse with the master spirits of past ages, to behold them as they
were; to mingle thought with thought and mind with mind; to let the
imagination rove--based however on the authentic record of the
past--through dim and distant ages; to behold the fathers and prophets
of the ancient earth; to hold communion with martyrs and prophets,
and kings; to kneel at the feet of the mighty lawgiver; to bend at the
shrine of the eternal poet; to imbibe inspiration from the eloquent,
to gather instruction from the wise, and pleasure from the gifted; to
behold, as in a glass, all the majesty and all the beauty of the
mighty PAST, to revel in all the accumulated treasures of Time--and
this, all this, we have by reading the privilege to do. Imagination
indeed, the gift of heaven, may soar elate, unchecked, though
untutored through time and space, through Time to Eternity, and may
people worlds at will; but that truthful basis which can alone give
permanence to her visions, that knowledge which ennobles and purifies
and elevates them is acquired from books, whether

"Song of the Muses, says historic tale,
Science severe, or word of Holy Writ,
Announcing immortality and joy."

The "word of Holy Writ," the BIBLE--we pass over its hopes, its
promises, its consolations--these themes are too sacred even for
reference on our light page--but here, we may remark, we see the world
in its freshness, its prime, its glory. We converse truly with godlike
men and angelic women. We see the mighty and majestic fathers of