[英國]約翰·盧伯克/John Lubbock
Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages;they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature;help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.
When we read we may not only be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, expense. Precious and priceless are the blessing, which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the noblest spirits, through the most sublime and enchanting regions.
Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says:“If anyone would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”
書對於人類，就如同記憶對於個人一樣。書記載了民族的曆史，人類的發現，世代累積的知識和經驗；書為我們描述自然界的奇跡和美麗，幫我們渡過難關，在我們傷痛時給予安慰，將疲勞的日子變為快樂的時刻；書把各種想法存儲於我們的頭腦，並用美好而快樂的思想充實它，從而使我們得以提升與超越。
讀書時，請不要做王宮裏的國王，最好讓自己沉醉在山林海濱，探尋美麗奇景，而不必受疲憊、麻煩和費用巨大之苦。書籍把珍貴無價的祝福撒在身邊的小徑。我們以高尚的心靈，在想象中穿過瑰麗迷人的地方。