The book is a living voice.

It is an intellect to which one still listens.

Hence we ever remain under the influence of the great men of old: "The dead but sceptred sovrans, who still rule Our spirits from their urns." The imperial intellects of the world are as much alive now as they were ages ago.

Homer still lives; and though his personal history is hidden in the mists of antiquity, his poems are as fresh to-day as if they had been newly written.

Plato still teaches his transcendent philosophy; Horace, Virgil, and Dante still sing as when they lived; Shakspeare is not dead: his body was buried in 1616, but his mind is as much alive in England now, and his thought as far-reaching, as in the time of the Tudors.
The humblest and poorest may enter the society of these great spirits without being thought intrusive.