Come, and take choice of all my library,
And so beguile thy sorrow.
Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
He furnished me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
There studious let me sit,
And hold high converse with the mighty dead;
Sages of ancient time, as gods revered,
As gods beneficent, who blest mankind
With arts, with arms, and humanized a world.
The Seasons: Winter. J. THOMSON.
POLONIUS.—What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET.—Words, words, words.
Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
O Reader! had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought may bring,
O gentle Reader! you would find
A tale in everything.
Simon Lee. W. WORDSWORTH.
And choose an author as you choose a friend.
Essay on Translated Verse. EARL OF ROSCOMMON.
When the last reader reads no more.
The Last Reader. O.W. HOLMES.
REASONS.
All was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low;
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful: yet he pleased the ear,
And with persuasive accent thus began.
Paradise Lost, Bk. II. MILTON.
Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as
plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason
upon compulsion. I.
King Henry IV., Pt. I. Act ii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.