(2)
Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the
presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what
they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; we
are participators in their thoughts; we sympathise with them,
enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours,
and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the
scenes which they describe.
The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in
books their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It
is an intellect to which one still listens. Hence we ever remain
under the influence of the great men of old:
"The dead but sceptred sovrans, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns."
The imperial intellects of the world are as much alive now as they
were ages ago. Homer still lives; and though his personal history
is hidden in the mists of antiquity, his poems are as fresh to-day
as if they had been newly written. Plato still teaches his
transcendent philosophy; Horace, Virgil, and Dante still sing as
when they lived; Shakspeare is not dead: his body was buried in
1616, but his mind is as much alive in England now, and his
thought as far-reaching, as in the time of the Tudors.
The humblest and poorest may enter the society of these great
spirits without being thought intrusive. All who can read have
got the ENTREE.
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