EMERSON
186 "There
are books ; and
it is
practicable to read
We
them, because they are so few.
look over
with a sigh the monumental libraries of Paris, of the Vatican and the British
Museum.
number of printed books Library at Paris was estimated the
In 1858
in the
Imperial
at eight
hundred
thousand volumes, with an annual increase of twelve thousand volumes
;
so that the number of
printed books extant to-day
may
easily exceed
a
number of pages man can read in a day, and the
million. It is easy to count the
which a
number
diligent
of years which
human
life in
favourable
circumstances allows to reading; and to
demon
though he should read from dawn till dark, for sixty years, he must die in the first
strate that,
But nothing can be more deceptive than arithmetic, where none but a natural method
alcoves. this is
really pertinent.
bridge Library, and
I visit
I
occasionally the
Cam
can seldom go there with
out renewing the conviction that the best of is
already within the four walls of
home.
The
my
it all
study at
me who
inspection of the catalogue brings
continually back to the few standard writers