Books

Books are silent lecturers;

To be secured at trifling cost,

To be companions at our firesides;

Let us, then, be choice to what we lend an ear.

Books are welcome humorists;

To lift us for a spell from gloom and thus our earthly stage prolong.

Books are preachers of the gospel;

Piloting wand’rers into straight and everlasting lanes;

Books are Nature’s melodies;

The raven’s cry, the thrush’s song, the brooklet’s tune,

The cowbell’s chime and all the music of her chanting flowers.

Books are miles of travel;

Journeys unto distant lands, sight of grandeur,

And rich harmonies of the combined orchestra of the world.

Books are Heaven;

Heaven and earth united, causing this drear spot to be a Heavenly earth.

All these, and more, are books.

March 31, 1893