“‘Poets are the trumpets which sing to battle. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’”
“Yes,” said Sam. “Quite so. But isn’t poetry going to the opposite extreme? I had the thought of something more direct. Good prose with a good moral.”
“Excellent,” said Peter, off again.
“‘Were not God’s laws,
His gospel laws, In olden time held forth
By types, shadows and metaphors?’”
“Of course they were,” said Sam, wondering when Peter would close his mental dictionary of quotations and come down to business, “and that quotation is very apt because I was thinking of classics. English classics, you know,” he explained hurriedly, “and classics because they are not copyright.”
“And have stood the test of time,” said Peter.
“Yes. Do you think you could propose a list? I should like to know that the first books I publish had been selected by you. I don’t think they ought to be exactly theological, but they must be good in every sense of the word.”
“Why not begin with the book from whose in traduction I just quoted?”