Chapter I: HAVE attained my desire: I have introduced you to a true book-lover

And if you wonder why I have chosen a life shadowed by sorrow, I answer that love comes that way. ’Tis no new teaching, that which shows how sorrow and tribulation are the paths by which men travel to perfection. We start upon life’s journey with a glad cry; but many fall from the ranks some distance from the ‘first milestone,’ and fortunate are the fallen ones who find an open book by the wayside.

It was thus the love of books came to my friend of the rose-coloured spectacles. Shadows fell across his path, and he fell from the ranks; but out of the shadows came sweet voices, telling of gentle fancies and strength-giving realities. This was the road (need I hesitate in confessing it?) upon which I, too, came by the love of books.

Oh! how much we book-lovers owe to ‘those little sheets of paper that teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.... We ought to (and surely do) reverence books, to look upon them as good and mighty things. Whether they are about religion or politics, farming, trade, or medicine, they are messages of the Teacher of all truth.’

More cannot be said. And so farewell, fellow book-lover. May you find upon the way many wise and friendly books.

But wait! I hear as though voiced in clear tones the beautiful passage to be found in the little _book-friend_ whose name is on so many lips. Let me follow the pleasing example of my friend of the rose-coloured spectacles. Let me echo the brief passage before I take leave of you: ‘It is scarcely farewell, for my road is ubiquitous, eternal; there are green ways in Paradise and golden streets in the beautiful City of God. Nevertheless my heart is heavy; for, viewed by the light of the waning year, roadmending seems a great and wonderful work which I have poorly conceived of and meanly performed: yet I have learnt to understand dimly the truths of the three paradoxes--the blessing of a curse, the voice of silence, the companionship of solitude--and so take my leave of this stretch of the road, and of you who have fared along the white highway through the medium of a printed page.’

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._

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THE CHEERFUL LIFE: A Series of Papers in Praise of Cheerfulness. Edited by E. W. WALTERS.

‘Some of the papers are of the highest order, many have an exquisite literary flavour, all of them make excellent reading.’ --_London Quarterly Review_.

‘Here is the very book for hours of gloom and hours of gladness. None of the papers are superficial, and two or three of them are of the highest order of literary art.’--_Great Thoughts_.

‘The best comment upon these pages is that they leave one cheerful. The book has at times a literary and always a human flavour, which redeems it from either dullness or mere sentiment.’--_Daily News_.

THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS: An Anthology. Edited by E. W. WALTERS.

‘A fresh and valuable anthology ... the selection has been made with taste and judgement, and the passages arranged with art and skill.’--_London Quarterly Review_.

‘The selections are fresh, modern, and wisely chosen. It will prove an invaluable quarry for preachers and speakers of all kinds to dig in.’--_Yorkshire Herald_.

‘If any one wishes to afford guidance to a friend, and at the same time to supply that friend with graciously expressed as well as helpful thoughts, this book may be wisely presented.’--_Mansfield Chronicle_.

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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Obvious typographical errors have been silently changed.

Inconsistent hyphenation has been corrected.