Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book!--a
message to us from the dead--from human souls whom we never saw, who
lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away; and yet these, on those little
sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, vivify us, teach us, comfort
us, open their hearts to us as brothers.... I say we ought to reverence
books, to look at them as useful and mighty things. If they are good and
true, whether they are about religion or politics, farming, trade, or
medicine, they are the message of Christ, the maker of all things, the
teacher of all truth, which He has put into the heart of some man to
speak, that he may tell us what is good for our spirits, for our bodies,
and for our country.--C. KINGSLEY. _Village Sermons: On Books._