The Best of the Worlds Classics, Restricted to prose. | Page 3

he generates, insomuch that
the glory of the world would be lost in oblivion, if God had not
provided mortals with a remedy in books. Alexander, the ruler of the
world; Julius[2] the invader of the world and the city, the first who in
unity of person assumed the empire in arms and arts; the faithful
Fabricius,[3] the rigid Cato, would at this day have been without a
memorial if the aid of books had failed them. Towers are razed to the
earth, cities overthrown, triumphal arches moldered to dust; nor can the
king or pope be found, upon whom the privilege of a lasting name can
be conferred more easily than by books. A book made renders
succession to the author; for as long as the book exists, the author,
remaining immortal, can not perish; as Ptolemy witnesseth; in the
prolog of his Almagest,[4] he (he says) is not dead, who gave life to
science.
What learned scribe, therefore, who draws out things new and old from
an infinite treasury of books, will limit their price by any other thing
whatsoever of another kind? Truth, overcoming all things, which ranks
above kings, wine, and women, to honor which above friends obtains
the benefit of sanctity, which is the way that deviates not, and the life
without end, to which the holy Boethius attributes a threefold existence
in the mind, in the voice, and in writing, appears to abide most usefully
and fructify most productively of advantage in books. For the truth of
the voice perishes with the sound. Truth, latent in the mind, is hidden
wisdom and invisible treasure; but the truth which illuminates books,

desires to manifest itself to every disciplinable sense, to the sight when
read, to the hearing when heard; it, moreover, in a manner commends
itself to the touch, when submitting to be transcribed, collated,
corrected, and preserved. Truth confined to the mind, tho it may be the
possession of a noble soul, while it wants a companion and is not
judged of, either by the sight or the hearing, appears to be inconsistent
with pleasure. But the truth of the voice is open to the hearing only, and
latent to the sight (which shows as many differences of things fixt upon
by a most subtle motion), beginning and ending as it were
simultaneously. But the truth written in a book being not fluctuating,
but permanent, shows itself openly to the sight passing through the
spiritual ways of the eyes, as the porches and halls of common sense
and imagination; it enters the chamber of intellect, reposes itself upon
the couch of memory, and there congenerates the eternal truth of the
mind.
Lastly, let us consider how great a commodity of doctrine exists in
books, how easily, how secretly, how safely they expose the nakedness
of human ignorance without putting it to shame. These are the masters
that instruct us without rods and ferulas, without hard words and anger,
without clothes or money. If you approach them, they are not asleep; if
investigating you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you
mistake them, they never grumble, if you are ignorant, they can not
laugh at you.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: From the "Philobiblon," a treatise on books, translated
from the original Latin into English in 1852 by John Englis. The Latin
text and a new translation by Andrew J. West were printed by the
Grolier Club of New York in 1887.]
[Footnote 2: The reference is to Julius Cæsar.]
[Footnote 3: The Roman Consul, general and ambassador to Pyrrhus in
280, who was noted for inflexible honesty.]
[Footnote 4: The best-known work of Ptolemy of Alexandria,

astronomer and mathematician, who lived in the first half of the second
century.]

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE
Reputed author of a book of "Travels" of the fourteenth century, a
compilation intended as a guide to pilgrims in the Holy Land, and
based upon works by William of Boldensele (1336) and Friar Odoric of
Pordenone (1330).

I.
THE ROUTE FROM ENGLAND TO CONSTANTINOPLE[5]
He that will pass over the sea and come to land, to go to the city of
Jerusalem, he may wend many ways, both on sea and land, after the
country that he cometh from; for many of them come to one end. But
trow not that I will tell you all the towns, and cities and castles that men
shall go by; for then should I make too long a tale; but all only some
countries and most principal steads that men shall go through to go the
right way.
First, if a man come from the west side of the world, as England,
Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or Norway, he may, if that he will, go through
Almayne and through the kingdom of Hungary, that marches to the