Resumo de Companionship Of Books

A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the
company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of
men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of
books or of men.

A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that
it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and
cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of
adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness;
amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in
age.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they
have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the
admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb,
?Love me, love my dog.? But there is more wisdom in this:? Love me,
love my book.? The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can
think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite
author. They live in him together, and he in them.

A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that
life could think out; for the world of a man?s life is, for the most
part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries
of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished,
become our constant companions and comforters.

Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most
lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books
survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh
today as when they first passed through their author?s minds, ages ago.
What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever
from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out
the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive e but what
is really good.

Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the
presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they
said and did; we see the as if they were really alive; we sympathize
with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes
ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the
scenes which they describe.

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