They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial
and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels,
a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed,
decides upon every man's title to fame. Only those books come down which
deserve to last. Gilt edges, vellum, and morocco, and presentation
copies to all the libraries, will not preserve a book in circulation
beyond its intrinsic date. It must go with all Walpole's Noble and Royal
Authors to its fate. Blackmore, Kotzebue, or Pollock may endure for a
night, but Moses and Homer stand for ever. There are not in the world at
any one time more than a dozen persons who read and understand Plato:
never enough to pay for an edition of his works; yet to every generation
these come duly down, for the sake of those few persons, as if God
brought them in his hand. 'No book,' said Bentley, 'was ever written
down by any but itself.' The permanence of all books is fixed by no
effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the
intrinsic importance of their contents to the constant mind of man.--R.
W. EMERSON. _Spiritual Laws._
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the
book.--R. W. EMERSON. _Goethe._