er and take up
their abode under my roof,--if Milton will cross my threshold to
sing to me of Paradise; and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds
of imagination and the workings of the human heart; and Franklin
to enrich me with his practical wisdom,--I shall not pine for
want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a
cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best
society in the place where I live."

Byron says that "a small drop of ink may make millions think." Many
a time a book has decided the character of a man's life. A book
makes friends for you; for there springs up from its reading an
acquaintanceship not only between you and the author, but between
you and another man who reads the same book. Samuel Johnson, hearing
that a man had read Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," exclaimed, "If
I knew that man I could hug him." It is said that Caesar, when
shipwrecked and in danger of drowning, did not try to save his gold,
but took his Commentaries between his teeth and swam to shore.

* * * * *

All these instances I have cited tend to prove how great is the
appreciation which men of culture have for those books out of which
they have drawn inspiration for their lives, or into the making of
which they have put their souls; and they all prove, also, the immense
importance of the accomplished proof-reader in helping to create for
us the books which we love.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Note:

The spellings today and to-day have been retained as they
appear in the original book.

Punctuation has been changed as follows:

Page 9 "The British Army won
'The British Army won

Page 17 New York. Not
New York." Not

Page 19 gains the day!' I
gains the day!'" I

End of Project Gutenberg's The Importance of the Proof-reader, by John Wilson

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