Readers' Progress

READERS of The English Review, in the good days when literature took precedence of politics in its pages, may recall a fascinating account of Richard de Bury, author of Philobiblon (1345), an ardent book collector, and the founder of an early lending library. The writer of the article quoted, among other lyrical passages in praise of books, one that seems specially apposite in our own distressful times:—“In books I find the dead as if they are alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike things are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace.”