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[00:05.67]Companionship of Books
[00:06.98]By Samuel Smiles
[00:08.73]A man may usually be known by the books he reads
[00:12.12]as well as by the company he keeps;
[00:14.20]for there is a companionship of books as well as of men;
[00:17.81]and one should always live in the best company,
[00:20.54]whether it be of books or of men.
[00:22.62]A good book may be among the best of friends. 
[00:25.47]It is the same today that it always was, 
[00:27.87]and it will never change. 
[00:29.29]It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. 
[00:32.57]It does not turn its back upon us 
[00:34.87]in times of adversity or distress. 
[00:36.95]It always receives us with the same kindness; 
[00:39.79]amusing and instructing us in youth, 
[00:42.31]and comforting and consoling us in age.
[00:45.48]Men often discover their affinity to each other 
[00:49.63]by the mutual love they have for a book 
[00:51.60]just as two persons sometimes discover a friend 
[00:54.99]by the admiration which both entertain for a third. 
[00:58.60]The book is a truer and higher bond of union. 
[01:01.77]Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other 
[01:05.50]through their favorite author. They live in him together, 
[01:08.74]and he, in them.
[01:10.06]A good book is often the best urn of a life 
[01:12.90]enshrining the best that life could think out; 
[01:15.41]for the world of a man¡¯s life is, for the most part, 
[01:18.80]but the world of his thoughts. 
[01:21.87]Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, 
[01:24.27]the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, 
[01:27.33]become our constant companions and comforters.
[01:30.51]Books possess an essence of immortality. 
[01:33.79]They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. 
[01:37.28]Temples and statues decay, but books survive. 
[01:41.00]Time is of no account with great thoughts, 
[01:43.63]which are as fresh today as when they first passed 
[01:46.91]through their authors¡¯ minds, ages ago. 
[01:48.99]What was then said and thought still speaks to us 
[01:52.16]as vividly as ever from the printed page.
[01:54.57]Books introduce us into the best society; 
[01:57.85]they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds 
[02:00.36]that have ever lived. 
[02:02.00]We hear what they said and did; 
[02:03.75]we see them as if they were really alive; 
[02:05.94]we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; 
[02:09.33]their experience becomes ours, 
[02:11.74]and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them 
[02:15.13]in the scenes which they describe.