Page 190—Cole's Poems On Books

What Books Do For Mankind

1.
Books should be found in every house,
To form and feed the mind;
They are the best of luxuries
To happify mankind.

2.
For all good books throughout the world
Are man's most precious treasure;
They make him wise, and bring him
His best, his choicest pleasure.

3.
Books make his time pass happily,
Relieve his weary hours;
Amuse, compose, instruct his mind;
Enlarge his mental powers.

4.
Books teach the boys and girls of earth
In quite ten million schools;
Books make the difference between
Earth's learned and its fools.

5.
Books teach earth's teeming artisans
The proper way to take,
To find, to plan, to build, to mix,
And every product make.

6.
Books teach schoolmasters, clergymen,
Of every rank and grade;
And doctors, lawyers, judges, too—
Books are their tools of trade.

* * * * * *
128.
Books thus, by print, and pictures, bring
The whole world into view,
And show what all men think about,
And everything they do.

129.
Books give to man the history
Of each and every land;
Books show him human actions past,
The bad, the good, the grand.

130.
Books show him human arts and laws
Of every time and place;
Books show the learnings and the faiths
Of all the human race.

131.
Books give the best and greatest thoughts
Of all the good and wise;
Books treasure human knowledge up,
And thus it never dies.

132.
Books show men all that men have done,
Have thought, have sung, have said,
Books show the deeds and wisdom of
The living and the dead.

133.
Books show that mankind's leading faiths,
In morals are the same;
That in their main essentials
They differ but in name.

134.
Books show that virtue, goodness, love,
Exist in every land;
That some with kindly sympathies
Are found on every strand.

135.
Books show the joys, griefs, hopes and fears,
Of every race and clan;
Books show, by unity of thought,
The brotherhood of man.

136.
Books thus will cause the flag of peace
Through earth to be unfurled—
Produce "the parliament of man,"
And federate the world.

137.
Books give the reader vast delight,
The bookless never know;
Books give him pleasure, day and night,
Wherever he may go.

138.
Books show narcotics, toxicants,
Of each and every kind;
Insidious destroyers all,
Of body and of mind.

139.
Books, like strong drink, will drowns man's cares
But do not waste his wealth;
Books leave him better, drink the worse,
In character and health.

140.
Books teach and please him when a child,
In youth and in his prime;
Books give him soothing pleasure when
His health and strength decline.

141.
Books teach, from their beginning, of
Higher beings than man;
That One Almighty Goodness was
Before the world began.

142.
Books give us hope beyond the grave,
Of an immortal life;
Books teach that right, and truth, and love,
Shall banish every strife.

143.
Books therefore are, of all we own,
The choicest things on earth;
Books have, of all our worldly goods,
The most intrinsic worth.

144.
Books are the greatest blessing brought,
The grandest thing we sell;
Books bring more joy,
Books do more good,
Than mortal tongue can tell.

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