All who are affected by the love of books hold worldly affairs and money
very cheap, as Jerome writes to Vigilantius (Epist. 54): 'It is not for
the same man to ascertain the value of gold coins and of writings;'
which somebody thus repeated in verse:
No tinker's hand shall dare a book to stain;
No miser's heart can wish a book to gain;
The gold assayer cannot value books;
On them the epicure disdainful looks.
One house at once, believe me, cannot hold
Lovers of books and hoarders up of gold.
No man, therefore, can serve mammon and books.--R. DE BURY.
_Philobiblon._