King James, 1605, when he came to see our University of Oxford, and
amongst other edifices now went to view that famous library, renewed by
Sir Thomas Bodley in imitation of Alexander at his departure, brake out
into that noble speech, 'If I were not a king, I would be a University
man: and if it were so that I must be a prisoner, if I might have my
wish, I would desire to have no other prison than that library, and to
be chained together with so many good authors, _et mortuis magistris_.'
So sweet is the delight of study, the more learning they have (as he
that hath a dropsy, the more he drinks the thirstier he is) the more
they covet to learn, and the last day is _prioris discipulus_; harsh at
first learning is, _radices amarae_, but _fructus dulces_, according to
that of Isocrates, pleasant at last; the longer they live, the more they
are enamoured with the Muses. Heinsius, the keeper of the library at
Leyden, in Holland, was mewed up in it all the year long; and that which
to thy thinking should have bred a loathing, caused in him a greater
liking. 'I no sooner (saith he) come into the library, but I bolt the
door to me, excluding lust, ambition, avarice, and all such vices, whose
nurse is Idleness, the mother of Ignorance, and Melancholy herself, and
in the very lap of eternity, amongst so many divine souls, I take my
seat with so lofty a spirit and sweet content, that I pity all our great
ones, and rich men that know not this happiness.'
I am not ignorant in the meantime (notwithstanding this which I have
said) how barbarously and basely, for the most part, our ruder gentry
esteem of libraries and books, how they neglect and contemn so great a
treasure, so inestimable a benefit, as Aesop's cock did the jewel he
found in the dunghill; and all through error, ignorance, and want of
education.--R. BURTON. _The Anatomy of Melancholy._