poverty of human ignorance to books without feeling any shame!
They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without
angry words, without clothes or money. If you come to them they
are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them they do not
withdraw themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they
do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. O books, who alone are
liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise
all who serve you faithfully! By how many thousand types are ye
commended to learned men in the Scriptures given us by
inspiration of God! For ye are the minds of profoundest wisdom,
to which the wise man sends his son that he may dig out
treasures: Prov. ii. Ye are the wells of living waters, which
father Abraham first digged, Isaac digged again, and which the
Philistines strive to fill up: Gen. xxvi. Ye are indeed the most
delightful ears of corn, full of grain, to be rubbed only by
apostolic hands, that the sweetest food may be produced for
hungry souls: Matt. xii. Ye are the golden pots in which manna
is stored, and rocks flowing with honey, nay, combs of honey,
most plenteous udders of the milk of life, garners ever full; ye
are the tree of life and the fourfold river of Paradise, by which
the human mind is nourished, and the thirsty intellect is watered
and refreshed. Ye are the ark of Noah and the ladder of Jacob,
and the troughs by which the young of those who look therein are
coloured; ye are the stones of testimony and the pitchers holding
the lamps of Gideon, the scrip of David, from which the smoothest
stones are taken for the slaying of Goliath. Ye are the golden
vessels of the temple, the arms of the soldiers of the Church
with which to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, fruitful
olives, vines of Engadi, fig-trees that are never barren, burning
lamps always to be held in readiness--and all the noblest