October 28th Wednesday
Men may usually be known by the books he reads as well as of the company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.
A good book may be among of the best friends. It is the same today that it always was, it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always
receive us with the same kindness, amusing and instructing us in the youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.
Men often discover their affinity to each other by the love he have each for a book -- just as two persons discover a friend by the admiration which he both have for a third. There is an old proverb: "Love me, love my dog." But there is
more wisdom in this: "Love me, love my book." The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favourite author. They live in him together, and he in them.
"Books," said Hazlitt, "wind into the heart; the poet's verse slides in the current of our blood. We read them when young, we remember them when old. We feel that it has happended to ourselves. They are to be very cheap and good. We breathe but the air of books."