man cannot love both gold and books. And thus it has been said
in verse:

No iron-stained hand is fit to handle books,
Nor he whose heart on gold so gladly looks:
The same men love not books and money both,
And books thy herd, O Epicurus, loathe;
Misers and bookmen make poor company,
Nor dwell in peace beneath the same roof-tree.
No man, therefore, can serve both books and Mammon.


The hideousness of vice is greatly reprobated in books, so that
he who loves to commune with books is led to detest all manner of
vice. The demon, who derives his name from knowledge, is most
effectually defeated by the knowledge of books, and through books
his multitudinous deceits and the endless labyrinths of his guile
are laid bare to those who read, lest he be transformed into an
angel of light and circumvent the innocent by his wiles. The
reverence of God is revealed to us by books, the virtues by which
He is worshipped are more expressly manifested, and the rewards
are described that are promised by the truth, which deceives not,
neither is deceived. The truest likeness of the beatitude to
come is the contemplation of the sacred writings, in which we
behold in turn the Creator and the creature, and draw from
streams of perpetual gladness. Faith is established by the power
of books; hope is strengthened by their solace, insomuch that by
patience and the consolation of scripture we are in good hope.
Charity is not puffed up, but is edified by the knowledge of true
learning, and, indeed, it is clearer than light that the Church