[英国]约翰·卢伯克/John Lubbock
Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages;they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature;help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.
When we read we may not only be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, expense. Precious and priceless are the blessing, which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the noblest spirits, through the most sublime and enchanting regions.
Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says:“If anyone would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”
书对于人类，就如同记忆对于个人一样。书记载了民族的历史，人类的发现，世代累积的知识和经验；书为我们描述自然界的奇迹和美丽，帮我们渡过难关，在我们伤痛时给予安慰，将疲劳的日子变为快乐的时刻；书把各种想法存储于我们的头脑，并用美好而快乐的思想充实它，从而使我们得以提升与超越。
读书时，请不要做王宫里的国王，最好让自己沉醉在山林海滨，探寻美丽奇景，而不必受疲惫、麻烦和费用巨大之苦。书籍把珍贵无价的祝福撒在身边的小径。我们以高尚的心灵，在想象中穿过瑰丽迷人的地方。