Books are becoming everything to me. If I had at this moment any choice in life, I would bury myself in one of those immense libraries...and never pa… - Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

The ambassador [of Russia] and the grandees who accompanied him were so gorgeous that all London crowded to stare at them, and so filthy that nobody dared to touch them. They came to the court balls dropping pearls and vermin.

To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god. The aim of the Baconian philosophy was to provide man with what he requires while he continues to be man. The aim of the Platonic philosophy was to raise us far above vulgar wants. The aim of the Baconian philosophy was to supply our vulgar wants. The former aim was noble; but the latter was attainable.

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!