He thought of it continually, and often quoted it to others.

His biographer says: "He tried to conform his own life and to assimilate his own character to it; and he succeeded, as all men succeed who are truly in earnest." [191] Books possess an essence of immortality.

They are by far the most lasting products of human effort.

Temples crumble into ruin; pictures and statues decay; but books survive.

Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh to-day as when they first passed through their authors' minds ages ago.