The medicine chest of the soul.

The medicine chest of the soul.

Shelved around us lie
The mummied authors.

Shelved around us lie
The mummied authors.

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of
shadows.

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of
shadows.

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

'Tis well to borrow from the good and the great;
'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create!

'Tis well to borrow from the good and the great;
'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create!

Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were
only the history of pinheads.

Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were
only the history of pinheads.

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all
the souls of all read more

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all
the souls of all the writers that have bequeathed their labours
to these Bodleians were reposing here as in some dormitory, or
middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves,
their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem
to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of
their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom
of those sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard.
- Charles Lamb (used pseudonym Elia),

The richest minds need not large libraries.

The richest minds need not large libraries.

Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient
saints, full of true virtue, and that read more

Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient
saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or
imposture, are preserved and reposed.