Philobiblos. Ireland, Alexander AMERICAN EDITION, Revised anD ENLARGED. "INFINITE RICHES IN A LITTLE ROOM." C. Marlowe. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. STANFORD LIBRARY Preface. THE motto to this little volume gives the key-note to its contents. "Infinite riches in a little room" describes what the reader will find within it. The object of the compiler has been to present, in chronological order, the summedup testimonies of all the best Book-Lovers on the subject of Books, and the Habit and Love of Reading. The writers selected from range from Solomon and Cicero down to Carlyle and Ruskin. On this bead-roll of illustrious names, "that down the steady breeze of honor sail," will be found those of Horace, Seneca, Plutarch, Richard de Bury (author of "Philobiblon," written at the end of the thirteenth century), Chaucer, Luther, Montaigne, Bacon, Shakespeare, 3 Bishop Hall, Robert Burton (author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy"), Fuller, Milton, Baxter, Cowley, Locke, Addison, Steele, Johnson, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Lamb, Southey, Godwin, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Landor, Leigh Hunt, Bulwer, Macaulay, Herschel, Hare, Maurice, Helps, Dawson, Carlyle, Ruskin, Hamerton, John Bright, and many other eminent thinkers. The reader will find in the following pages the deliberate utterances of some of the wisest spirits of all time, upon the subject of Books and what they do for us-the steadfast and unpresuming friendship of these silent counsellors, the consolation they afford in every variety of circumstance or fortune, and the ceaseless delights they bring at so little cost, and with no trouble or difficulty. The writers of the present century have contributed, of course, most largely to the general store of thought on this special subject. Living authors, and the representatives of some who have passed away, have kindly allowed the com piler to make use of works in which they hold a vested interest. Among the selections will be found many valuable pages from American authors. The words of Channing, Washington Irving, Emerson, Longfellow, Theodore Parker, Hillard, Alcott, Beecher, and Collyer stand side by side with those of their English co-thinkers. This little Manual, it is hoped, will meet some of the special wants and moods of many thoughtful persons; more particularly of those who are earnest and reverent, and who find their most enduring pleasures in studious contemplation. The compiler has gone to the original sources for his matter, selecting direct from the works of the writers quoted; so that the correctness of the text may be relied upon. In a few cases only has he resorted to existing collections of extracts. A. I. |