The most meek Moses instructs us about making cases for books in the
neatest manner, wherein they may be safely preserved from all damage.
'Take this book,' says he, 'and put it in the side of the ark of the
covenant of the Lord your God' (Deut. xxxi). O, befitting place,
appropriate library, which was made of imperishable Shittim wood, and
covered all over inside and out with gold! But our Saviour also, by his
own example, precludes all unseemly negligence in the treatment of
books, as may be read in Luke iv. For when he had read over the
scriptural prophecy written about himself in a book debarred to him, he
did not return it to the minister till he had first closed it with his
most holy hands; by which act students are most clearly taught that they
ought not in the smallest degree whatever to be negligent about the
custody of books.--R. DE BURY. _Philobiblon._
Is not the leaf turned down
Where I left reading?