The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury | Page 6

By how many
thousand types are ye commended to learned men in the Scriptures
given us by inspiration of God! For ye are the minds of profoundest
wisdom, to which the wise man sends his son that he may dig out
treasures: Prov. ii. Ye are the wells of living waters, which father
Abraham first digged, Isaac digged again, and which the Philistines
strive to fill up: Gen. xxvi. Ye are indeed the most delightful ears of
corn, full of grain, to be rubbed only by apostolic hands, that the
sweetest food may be produced for hungry souls: Matt. xii. Ye are the
golden pots in which manna is stored, and rocks flowing with honey,
nay, combs of honey, most plenteous udders of the milk of life, garners
ever full; ye are the tree of life and the fourfold river of Paradise, by
which the human mind is nourished, and the thirsty intellect is watered
and refreshed. Ye are the ark of Noah and the ladder of Jacob, and the
troughs by which the young of those who look therein are coloured; ye
are the stones of testimony and the pitchers holding the lamps of
Gideon, the scrip of David, from which the smoothest stones are taken
for the slaying of Goliath. Ye are the golden vessels of the temple, the
arms of the soldiers of the Church with which to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked, fruitful olives, vines of Engadi, fig-trees that are
never barren, burning lamps always to be held in readiness--and all the
noblest comparisons of Scripture may be applied to books, if we choose
to speak in figures.
CHAPTER II

THE DEGREE OF AFFECTION THAT IS PROPERLY DUE TO
BOOKS
Since the degree of affection a thing deserves depends upon the degree
of its value, and the previous chapter shows that the value of books is
unspeakable, it is quite clear to the reader what is the probable
conclusion from this. I say probable, for in moral science we do not
insist upon demonstration, remembering that the educated man seeks
such degree of certainty as he perceives the subject-matter will bear, as
Aristotle testifies in the first book of his Ethics. For Tully does not
appeal to Euclid, nor does Euclid rely upon Tully. This at all events we
endeavour to prove, whether by logic or rhetoric, that all riches and all
delights whatsoever yield place to books in the spiritual mind, wherein
the Spirit which is charity ordereth charity. Now in the first place,
because wisdom is contained in books more than all mortals understand,
and wisdom thinks lightly of riches, as the foregoing chapter declares.
Furthermore, Aristotle, in his Problems, determines the question, why
the ancients proposed prizes to the stronger in gymnastic and corporeal
contests, but never awarded any prize for wisdom. This question he
solves as follows: In gymnastic exercises the prize is better and more
desirable than that for which it is bestowed; but it is certain that nothing
is better than wisdom: wherefore no prize could be assigned for
wisdom. And therefore neither riches nor delights are more excellent
than wisdom. Again, only the fool will deny that friendship is to be
preferred to riches, since the wisest of men testifies this; but the chief
of philosophers honours truth before friendship, and the truthful
Zorobabel prefers it to all things. Riches, then, are less than truth. Now
truth is chiefly maintained and contained in holy books--nay, they are
written truth itself, since by books we do not now mean the materials of
which they are made. Wherefore riches are less than books, especially
as the most precious of all riches are friends, as Boethius testifies in the
second book of his Consolation; to whom the truth of books according
to Aristotle is to be preferred. Moreover, since we know that riches first
and chiefly appertain to the support of the body only, while the virtue
of books is the perfection of reason, which is properly speaking the
happiness of man, it appears that books to the man who uses his reason
are dearer than riches. Furthermore, that by which the faith is more

easily defended, more widely spread, more clearly preached, ought to
be more desirable to the faithful. But this is the truth written in books,
which our Saviour plainly showed, when he was about to contend
stoutly against the Tempter, girding himself with the shield of truth and
indeed of written truth, declaring "it is written" of what he was about to
utter with his voice.
And, again, no one doubts that happiness is to be preferred to riches.
But happiness consists in the operation of the noblest and diviner of the
faculties that we possess--when the whole mind is occupied in
contemplating the truth of wisdom,