Those who have collected books, and whose good nature has prompted them
to accommodate their friends with them, will feel the sting of the
answer made by a man of wit to one who lamented the difficulty which he
found in persuading his friends to return the volumes that he had lent
them:
"Sir," said he, "your acquaintances find, I suppose, that it is much
more easy to retain the books themselves, than what is contained in
them."
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The following gives a pathetic description of a studious boy lingering
at a bookstall:
I saw a boy with eager eye
Open a book upon a stall,
And read, as he'd devour it all;
Which, when the stall-man did espy,
Soon to the boy I heard him call,
"You, sir, you never buy a book,
Therefore in one you shall not look."
The boy passed slowly on, and with a sigh
He wished he never had been taught to read,
Then of the old churl's books he should have had no need.
--_Mary Lamb._
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Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are
the most useful after all. A man will often look at them, and be tempted
to go on, when he would have been frightened at books of a larger size
and of a more erudite appearance.
--_Dr. Johnson._
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