t seldom talismans and spells."

Why should they not be so? They furnish us the means, and the only
means, whereby we may hold communion with the master-spirits of all ages.
They bring us acquainted with the best thoughts which the human mind has
produced, expressed in the noblest language. Books create for us the
many-sided world, carry us abroad, out of our narrow provincial horizons,
and reveal to us new scenery, new men, new languages, and new modes of
life. As we read, the mind expands with the horizon, and becomes broad as
the blue heaven above us. With Homer, we breathe the fresh air of the
pristine world, when the light of poetry gilded every mountain top, and
peopled the earth with heroes and demigods. With Plutarch, we walk in
company with sages, warriors, and statesmen, and kindle with admiration
of their virtues, or are roused to indignation at their crimes. With
Sophocles, we sound the depths of human passion, and learn the sublime
lesson of endurance. We are charmed with an ode of Horace, perfect in
rhythm, perfect in sentiment, perfect in diction, and perfect in moral;
the condensed essence of volumes in a single page. We walk with Dante
through the nether world, awed by the tremendous power with which he
depicts for us the secrets of the prison house. With Milton, we mount
heaven-ward, and in the immortal verse of his minor poems, finer even
than the stately march of Paradise Lost, we hear celestial music, and
breathe diviner air. With that sovereign artist, Shakespeare, full
equally of delight and of majesty, we sweep the horizon of this complex
human life, and become comprehensive scholars and citizens of the world.
The masters of fiction enthrall us with their fascinating pages, one
moment shaking us with uncontrollable laughter, and the next, dissolving
us in tears. In the presence of all these emanations of genius, the wise
reader may feed on nectar and ambrosia, and forget the petty cares and
vexations of to-day.

There are some books that charm us by their wit or their sweetness,
others that surprise and captivate us by their strength: books that
refresh us when weary: books that comfort us when afflicted: books that
stimulate us by their robust health: books that exalt and refine our
natures, as it were, to a finer mould: books that rouse us like the sound
of a trumpet: books that illumine the darkest hours, and fill all our day
with delight.

It is books that record the advance and the decline