How pleasant it is to reflect, that all these lovers of books have
themselves become books! What better metamorphosis could Pythagoras have
desired! How Ovid and Horace exulted in anticipating theirs! And how the
world have justified their exultation! They had a right to triumph over
brass and marble. It is the only visible change which changes no
further; which generates and yet is not destroyed. Consider: mines
themselves are exhausted; cities perish; kingdoms are swept away, and
man weeps with indignation to think that his own body is not immortal.
Muoiono le città, muoiono i regni,
E l'uom d'esser mortal par che si sdegni.
Yet this little body of thought, that lies before me in the shape of a
book, has existed thousands of years, nor since the invention of the
press can anything short of an universal convulsion of nature abolish
it. To a shape like this, so small yet so comprehensive, so slight yet
so lasting, so insignificant yet so venerable, turns the mighty activity
of Homer, and, so turning, is enabled to live and warm us for ever. To a
shape like this turns the placid sage of Academus: to a shape like this
the grandeur of Milton, the exuberance of Spenser, the pungent elegance
of Pope, and the volatility of Prior. In one small room, like the
compressed spirits of Milton, can be gathered together
The assembled souls of all that men held wise.
May I hope to become the meanest of these existences? This is a question
which every author who is a lover of books asks himself some time in
his life; and which must be pardoned, because it cannot be helped. I
know not. I cannot exclaim with the poet,
Oh that my name were numbered among theirs,
Then gladly would I end my mortal days.
For my mortal days, few and feeble as the rest of them may be, are of
consequence to others. But I should like to remain visible in this
shape. The little of myself that pleases myself I could wish to be
accounted worth pleasing others. I should like to survive so, were it
only for the sake of those who love me in private, knowing as I do what
a treasure is the possession of a friend's mind, when he is no more. At
all events, nothing while I live and think can deprive me of my value
for such treasures. I can help the appreciation of them while I last,
and love them till I die; and perhaps, if fortune turns her face once
more in kindness upon me before I go, I may chance, some quiet day, to
lay my overbeating temples on a book, and so have the death I most
envy.--J. H. LEIGH HUNT. _My Books._