Precious and priceless are the blessings which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk in imagination with the noblest spirits through the most sublime and enchanting regions.

Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms when Spenser"s shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton"s angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of Paradise. Science, art, literature, philosophy, --all that man has thought, all that man has done, --the experience that has been bought with the sufferings of a hundred generations, --all are garnered up for us in the world of books.