The love of books; the Philobiblon of Richard de Bury

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Where re the fidit professors of evangelicat overu, aster ome uight mage aid o secular science, collecting est thei sorce of intellect devote themselvesto labours upo the sacre scripture, meditatinitay

ori. Whose ortae contemporaries observinginei devotion an stud besto e um them sorthe edificatio of the whole Church the booti hichthe had collecte at great expense in the various paris of the worid. In truth, in these days asae are engage wit aliditisence in ursuit of gain, it a b reasonabj

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bellevia, is, spea accordin to human notions, that God thinis lem po those homme perceivesto distrusimis promises, pulting thei hope in humanprovidence, no considering the aven nor the lilies, whom the ostmigh seed and arrays. e do notthin upo Daniel and the bearer of the mes of ilexmttage, nor recollectilha - was deliveredfrom unge once in the deserta angeis again in the torrent is avens, and again in Sarepta by the wido , through the divine boun , hic oves to altsses thei mea in due season. Y descend as esear is a retched anticlimax, distrus os the divine

ye have hosen oni se profit' sahe. Wit summe sevit, a theseople gossip ye attractboys to religion, hom hen the have ahen thevows ye do no instructassear an force, a thei agerequires, ut alto them to devote themselves oberein expeditions an suffer them to spen the

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theciamur of friends, to the annoyance of their parenis, the dange of the bos, and the detriment of the order And thus no doubicit happens that those who were not compelle to learn as unwillinc Π, When in aro up presume to each though ulterjunworin and uniearned, and a mali error in the be- ginning ecomes a very greatine in the end. Forthere ro among our promiscuous fioch flait a pestilent multitude os creatures, who nevertheles the more hamelesu sorce themselves into the

office of preaching the les the underatand what in are saying, to the contempt of the Divine Word and the injur os fouis. In truth, against the la yeplough wit an cand an as together, in committingili cultivatio of the Lordys sies to learned and un-learned Sidea fide, it is ritien, the Xen ereptoughin and the asses scedin beside them sinceit is thetaut of the discreet to reach but of the simplerio seed themselves in silence by the hearing of

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scalter the nations that delight in ar, hichis a verali plagues injurious to booti For ars Mingwithout the contres of reason ah a d assauit oneverything the come acrom, and lachin the chech of reason the pus o without discretioni distinctionto destro the esset os reason. The the wise Apollobecomes the Ρython' prey, and Phronesis, the pious mollier, ecomes subjecto the power of hren . The wingedaegasus is hutis in the stallis Corydon, and eloquent ercur is strangled. The wiseΡallas is struch down by the dagger of error, and thecharmin Ρierides are mitte by the truculent tyranny of madness. O cruel spectacle here)ou

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may se the hoebus o philosophers, the all-wise Aristolle, hom Godmimself made master of themaster of the world enchaine by iched hand and borne in hameia irons o the lioulder of gladiatora from his sacred home There o may see him howas orth to e la ive to the lawgiver of the worid and to hold empire verrit emperor, made theclave of vile bus Ons by the mos unrighteous law of War. O mos wichediower of darhness, hic does no star orando the approved divinit o Plato, hoatone Was orth to submit to the vie of the Creator besore he assuaged the striis of warring chaos, and besere sor had ut o iis gar of matter, theides types, in orde to demonstrate in archetypaluniverse toriis author so that the wori of sensemirat e modesse aster the supernat altern Olearful sight i here the mora Socrates, hos actSwere virtve and whos dis urse a science, hodeduce politica justice seo the principies of

nature, is seen enuave to ome rascat robber. ebemoan ythagoras, the parent of harmony, as,

brutati scourged by the har ingesuries of war, he

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the tyrant, and now, alas cis brayed an crushed todeat in a mortara Diomedon. In ooth, canno moum it the grief that theydeserve ali the various books that have perished by the fate os war in various paris of the worid. et wemust earfuli recount the readfui ruin hich was

caused in Egypt by the auxiliaries in the Alexandrian

sumed is sire These volume had Men collected by the royalatolemies throuis long period os time, as Aulus Gellius relates. What an Atlantea progenymustae supposedo have then perishex including the motions of the spheres, at the conjunctions of the planeis, the natur of the galaxy, and the prognostic generations o comeis, an ali that exist in the heaven or in the ether i ho ould notishudderat such a aples holocaust, here in is offered pinstead of blood, where the glowing ashesis crachling

shrines of terna truthes A esse crime tha thisis the sacrifice of Jephtha or Agamemnon, here pious aughter is lain Daciather' sword How

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throuis an ut received by divine inspiration

what his rother Zoroaster, the servant of unclean

spiriis, aught the Bactrians; ha hes Enota, thepresect of aradise, prophesie besore he was ahen m the worid, and finalty What in fidit Adamtaught his hildre of the things to come, hic hehad seen hen aught u in an eoetas in the book of eterni , are bellevexis have perished in those horridflames. The religio of the gyptians, hic thebook of theaersect Word so commend the excellent polit of the olde Athens, hic preceded by nine

thousand years the Athens of Greeceri the cham os the Chaldaean the observations of the Arabs and Indian the eremontes of the Jewsa the architecture of the Babylonian the agriculture of Noah the magi aris of oses the geometr of Joshua the nigmas of Samson the problems of Solomons rom the cedar o Lebanon to the hyssopa in antidotes of Aesculapius ohe gramma os Cadmus the

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mems flarnassus the oracles of Apollo the arm- nautici of ason the stratagem o Palamedes, and infinite other secreta os science are belleved to have

perished a the time of this conflagration. Nay, Aristolle ould not have misse the quadratur of the circle istoni baleis conflicti had spared the book of the ancients, whoanew ali the methodso nature. e ould not have est the problem ofthe eternit of the worid an ope question nor, ascis credibi conceived would he have had an doubis of the plurali is human intellecis and of thei eternity, is the perfeci sciences of the anciendi ha no been exposed to the calamities of hatelat wara. For is Nars e re Cattered into soreim lanct are mutilated, wounded, and shamefuit disfigured area ted under the earth an ovemhelmed in the ea, are devoured

when he was ageri compassing the overthrow os