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Christian commonwealth, not indeed to enerVate students
with the delights of a Sardanapalus or the riches of a Croesus, but rather to support them in their poverty with the frugal
guished by no pride of birth, and rejoicing in no ricli inherit- ance, but supported only by the piety of the good, have madetheir way to apostolic chairs, have most worthily presided oversalthsul subjecis, have bent the necks of the proud and losty to the ecclesiastical yoke and have extended surther the liberties
Accor lingly, having taken a furvey of human necessities in every direction, with a view to bestow our charity Upon them,our compassionate inclinations have chosen to bear plous aidio this calamitous class of men, in whom there is neverthelesssuch hope of advantage to the Church, and to provide sorthem, not only in respect of things necessary to their SUppori, but much more in respect of the books so usesul to their studies. To this end, most acceptabie in the sight of God, our attention has long been unweariedly devoted. This ecstaticlove has carried Us away so powersilly, that we have resignedali thoughts of other earthly things, and haVe giVen OUrSelVCS Up to a passion sor acquiring books. That our intent and pur- pose, theressere, may be known to posterity as weli as to our
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and will narrate more clearly than light ali the circumstances of our undertaking. And because it principalty treats of thelove of books, we have chosen, aster the fashion of the ancient Romans, fondly to name it by a Greek word, Philobiblon.
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TNL DL IRABLE TREAsURE of wisdom and science, whichali men destre by an instinct of nature, infinitely surpasses ali the riches of the world; in respect of whicli
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eVeryone who seeks finds thee, and to everyone that knocheth boldly it is speedily opened. Therein the cherubim spread OUttheir wings, that the intellect of the students may ascend and look frona pole to pote, from the east and west, from the northand from the fouth. Therein the mighty and incomprehensibie God Himself is apprehensibiy contained and worshipped; therein is revealed the nature of things celestiat, terrestiat, and infernal; therein are discerned the laws by whicli every stateis administered, the ossices of the celestiat hierarchy are distinguished, and the tyrannies of demons described, suci, asneither the ideas of Plato transcend, nor the chair of Crato
s resee things to come; in books warlike aflairs are set sortii; from books come sortii the laws of peace. All things are corrupte i and decay in time; Saturn ceases not to deuour the chil-dren that he generates; ali the glory of the world would beburied in oblivion, unless God had provided mortals with theremedy of books. AleXander, the conqueror of the earth, Iulius, the invaderos Rome and of the worid, who, the first in war and aris,asSUmed universat empire under his single rute, faithsul Fabricius and stern Cato, would now have been unknown tofame, is the a id of books had been wanting. Towers have been raZed to the ground ; cities have been overthrown; triumphat arches have perished from decay; nor can either popeor hing find any means of more eastly conserring the privilege of perpetuity than by books. The book that he has made renders iis author this service in return, that so long as the booksUrvives iis author remains immortal and cannot die, as Ptolemy declares in the Prologue to his Almagest: He is not dead, he says, who has given lisse to science. Who theres re wili limit by anything of another hind theprice of the infinite trea sure of books, frona whicli the scribe who is instructed bringetli sorth things new and oldξ Truththat triumplis over ait things, which overcomes the king,
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thOUglit, speech, and writing, seems to remain more Usesillyand to fructify to greater profit in books. For the meaning of the voice perishes with the found; truth latent in the mind is wisdom that is hid and treasure that is not seen; but truthwhich shines sortii in books destres to manifest itself to every impressionabie sense. It commen is itself to the sight when itis read, to the hearing when it is heard, and moreover in amanner to the touch, when it suffers itself to be transcribed, bOUnd, corrected, and preserved. The undisclosed truth of themind, although it is the possession of the nobie foui, yet be- cause it lacks a companion, is not certainly known to be delightsul, while netther sight nor hearing takes account of it. Further, the truth of the voice is patent only to the ear and eludes the sighi, whicli reveais to us more of the qualities of things, and linked with the subilest os motions begins and perishes as it were in a breath. But the written truth of books,not transient but permanent, plainly offers itself to be observed, and by means of the pervious spherules of the Cyes, passing through the vestibule os perception and the couris of imagination, enters the chamber of intelleci, taking iis placein the couch of memory, where it engenders the eternat truthos the mind. Finalty we must consider what pleasantness of teachingthere is in books, how easy, how secreti How sasely we laybare the poverty of human ignorance to books without seelingany shanael They are masters who instruct us without rod orserule, withoiit angry words, withoiit Clothes or money. Is youcOme to them they are not afleep; is you ask and inquire of
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smoothest Siones are taken sor the flaying of Goliath. Ye arethe goiden vesseis of the temple, the arms of the soldiers of
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upon the degree of iis value, and the previous chapter silows that the value of books is unspeahabie, it is quite clear to the reader what is the probabie conclusion fromthis. I say probabie, sor in morat science we do not insist Upondemonstration, remembering that the educated man seelis such degree of certainty as he perceives the subject-matter Will
cause wisdom is contained in books more than ali mortals Understand, and wisdom thinks lightly of riches, as the fore-going chapter declares. Furthermore, Aristolle, in his Problems, determines the question, why the ancients proposed priZes to the stronger in gymnastic and corporeal contests, but neVer awarded any prige sor wisdom. This question hesolves as sollows: In gymnastic eXercises the pri Ze is beller and more destrable than that for whicli it is bestowed; but it is certain that nothing is beller than wisdom: wheres re nopriZe could be assigned sor wisdom. And theres re nettherriches nor deligitis are more excellent than wisdom. Again,
riches, since the wisest of men testifies this; but the clites of philosophers honours truth bes re friendship, and the truthsul Zorobabel presers it to ali things. Riches, then, are less than truth. Now truth is chies y maintained and contained in holybooks-nay, they are written truth itself, since by books we
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do not now mean the materials of whicli they are made. Wheres re riches are less than books, especialty as the most precious os ali riches a re friends, as Boethius testifies in thesecond book of his Consolation: to whom the truth of booksaccording to Aristolle is to be preserred. MoreoVer, Since Weknow that riches firsi and chiefly appertain to the support of
the body only, while the virtve of books is the persection ofreason, whicli is properly speahing the happiness of man, itappears that books to the man who uses his reason are dearer
And, again, no one dou bis that happiness is to be preserredio riches. But happiness consisis in the operation of the nobi estand diviner of the faculties that we possess-when the wholemind is occupied in contempla ting the truth of wisdom, whicli is the most delectabie of ali our virtuous activities, ASthe prince of philosophers declares in the tentii book of the Ethici, on whicli account it is that philosophy is held to have wondrotas pleasures in respect os purity and solidity, as hegoes On to say. BUt the contemplation os truth is never more persect than in books, where the act of imagination perpetuated by books does not suffer the operation of the intellectupon the trullis that it has seen to suffer interruption. Wheres re books appear to be the most immediate instruments of
speculative delight, and theres re Aristolle, the sun os philosophic truth, in considering the principies of choice, teaches that in iiseis to philosophiae is more destrable than to be ricli,
although in certain cases, as where sor instance one is in needos necessaries, it may be more destrabie to be rich than tophilosophi ZC.
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chapter assumes, it is sitiing to bestow on them the honourand the affection that we owe to our teachers. In sine, since alimen naturalty destre to know, and since by means of bookswe can attain the knowledge of the ancients, whicli is to bedestred beyond ali riches, what man living accor ling to nature