...limbo of libraries...

Jacq reposting from her old blog

A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson about a limbo of libraries…

In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes; and though they know us, and have been waiting two, ten, or twenty centuries for us,—some of them,—and are eager to give us a sign and unbosom themselves, it is the law of their limbo that they must not speak until spoken to; and as the enchanter has dressed them, like battalions of infantry, in coat and jacket of one cut, by the thousand and ten thousand, your chance of hitting on the right one is to be computed by the arithmetical rule of Permutation and Combination,—not a choice out of three caskets, but out of half a million caskets, all alike.

I like the concept of books being friends who are "imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes". I dont, however agree with the rest of his concept - that they are hard to look through to find the right one - that they are "battalions of infantry" - I disagree because books become your well-loved friends, and you come to recognise them regardless of if they are wearing the same coat of jackets... its like seeing your best friend in a crowd of hundreds - you may be 150 metres away, but that person is so familiar to you that you can say without a doubt who it is.

*sigh* now i wanna go hang out in a massive library....