_fire_.--COLTON.

Books, dear books,
Have been, and are my comforts; morn and night,
Adversity, prosperity, at home,
Abroad, health, sickness--good or ill report,
The same firm friends; the same refreshment rich,
And source of consolation.
--DR. DODD.

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and
courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the work by; it
is good, and made by a good workman.--LA BRUYÈRE.

Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support
us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves.
They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our
cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we
are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing
of peevishness, pride or design in their conversation.--JEREMY COLLIER.

He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he
that studies men will know how things are.--COLTON.

It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part;
the rest are confounded with the multitude.--VOLTAIRE.

Good books are to the young mind what the warming sun and the
refreshing rain of spring are to the seeds which have lain dormant in
the frosts of winter. They are more, for they may save from that which