ISBN: 2940012978455

I.I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the roomwhich it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut offwith it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back… mais…

I.I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the roomwhich it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut offwith it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into thesoothing company of the great dead, and then you are through themagic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation canfollow you no more. You have left all that is vulgar and all that issordid behind you. There stand your noble, silent comrades, waitingin their ranks. Pass your eye down their files. Choose your man.And then you have but to hold up your hand to him and away you gotogether into dreamland. Surely there would be something eerie abouta line of books were it not that familiarity has deadened our senseof it. Each is a mummified soul embalmed in cere-cloth and natronof leather and printer's ink. Each cover of a true book enfolds theconcentrated essence of a man. The personalities of the writers havefaded into the thinnest shadows, as their bodies into impalpabledust, yet here are their very spirits at your command.It is our familiarity also which has lessened our perception of themiraculous good fortune which we enjoy. Let us suppose that we weresuddenly to learn that Shakespeare had returned to earth, and thathe would favour any of us with an hour of his wit and his fancy. Howeagerly we would seek him out! And yet we have him--the very best ofhim--at our elbows from week to week, and hardly trouble ourselvesto put out our hands to beckon him down. No matter what mood a manmay be in, when once he has passed through the magic door he cansummon the world's greatest to sympathize with him in it. If he bethoughtful, here are the kings of thought. If he be dreamy, hereare the masters of fancy. Or is it amusement that he lacks? He cansignal to any one of the world's great story-tellers, and out comesthe dead man and holds him enthralled by the hour. The dead are suchgood company that one may come to think too little of the living.It is a real and a pressing danger with many of us, that we shouldnever find our own thoughts and our own souls, but be ever obsessedby the dead. Yet second-hand romance and second-hand emotion aresurely better than the dull, soul-killing monotony which life bringsto most of the human race. But best of all when the dead man'swisdom and strength in the living of our own strenuous days. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940012978455

THROUGH THE MAGIC DOOR Through-the-Magic-Door~~Arthur-Conan-Doyle Fiction>Fiction>Fiction NOOK Book (eBook), SAP