However much we may admire the orator's occasional bursts of eloquence， the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or above the fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds.  There are the stars， and they who can may read them.  The astronomers forever comment on and observe them. They are not exhalations like our daily colloquies and vaporous breath.  What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study.  The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion， and speaks to the mob before him， to those who can hear him； but the writer， whose more equable life is his occasion， and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator， speaks to the intellect and health of mankind， to all in any age who can understand him.

　　No wonder that Alexander carried the Iliad with him on his expeditions in a precious casket.  A written word is the choicest of relics.  It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art.  It is the work of art nearest to life itself.  It may be translated into every language， and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips； ―― not be represented on canvas or in marble only， but be carved out of the breath of life itself.  The symbol of an ancient man's thought becomes a modern man's speech.  Two thousand summers have imparted to the monuments of Grecian literature， as to her marbles， only a maturer golden and autumnal tint， for they have carried their own serene and celestial atmosphere into all lands to protect them against the corrosion of time.  Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books， the oldest and the best， stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage.  They have no cause of their own to plead， but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them.  Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society， and， more than kings or emperors， exert an influence on mankind.  When the illiterate and perhaps scornful trader has earned by enterprise and industry his coveted leisure and independence， and is admitted to the circles of wealth and fashion， he turns inevitably at last to those still higher but yet inaccessible circles of intellect and genius， and is sensible only of the imperfection of his culture and the vanity and insufficiency of all his riches， and further proves his good sense by the pains which be takes to secure for his children that intellectual culture whose want he so keenly feels； and thus it is that he becomes the founder of a family.

　　Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race； for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue， unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript.  Homer has never yet been printed in English， nor AEschylus， nor Virgil even ―― works as refined， as solidly done， and as beautiful almost as the morning itself； for later writers， say what we will of their genius， have rarely， if ever， equalled the elaborate beauty and finish and the lifelong and heroic literary labors of the ancients.  They only talk of forgetting them who never knew them.  It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and appreciate them.  That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics， and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations， shall have still further accumulated， when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles， with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares，and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world.  By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last.

　　不管我們如何贊賞演說家有時能爆發出來的好口才，最崇高的文字還通常地是隱藏在瞬息萬變的口語背后，或超越在它之上的，仿佛繁星點點的蒼穹藏在浮云后面一般。

　　那里有眾星，凡能觀察者都可以閱讀它們。天文學家永遠在解釋它們，觀察它們。它們可不像我們的日常談吐和噓氣如云的呼吸。在講臺上的所謂口才，普通就是學術界的所謂修辭。演講者在一個閃過的靈感中放縱了他的口才，向著他面前的群眾，向著那些跑來傾聽他的人說話；可是作家，更均衡的生活是他們的本份，那些給演講家以靈感的社會活動以及成群的聽眾只會分散他們的心智，他們是廣著人類的智力和心曲致辭的，向著任何年代中能夠懂得他們的一切人說話的。

　　難怪亞歷山大行軍時，還要在一只寶匣中帶一部《伊利亞特》了。文字是圣物中之最珍貴者。它比之別的藝術作品既跟我們更親密，又更具有世界性。這是最接近于生活的藝術。它可以翻譯成每一種文字，不但給人讀，而且還吐納在人類的唇上；不僅是表現在油畫布上，或大理石上，還可以雕刻在生活自身的呼吸之中的。一個古代人思想的象征可以成為近代人的口頭禪。兩千個夏天已經在紀念碑似的希臘文學上，正如在希臘的大理石上面，留下了更成熟的金色的和秋收的色彩，因為他們帶來了他們自己的壯麗的天體似的氣氛，傳到了世界各地，保護他們兔受時間剝蝕。書本是世界的珍室，多少世代與多少國土的最優良的遺產。書，最古老最好的書，很自然也很適合于放在每一個房屋的書架上。它們沒有什么私事要訴說，可是，當它們啟發并支持了讀者，他的常識使他不能拒絕它們。它們的作者，都自然而然地，不可抗拒地成為任何一個社會中的貴族，而他們對于人類的作用還大于國王和皇帝的影響。當那目不識丁的，也許還是傲慢的商人，由于苦心經營和勤勞刻苦，掙來了閑暇以及獨立，并廁身于財富與時髦的世界的時候，最后他不可避免地轉向那些更高級，然而又高不可攀的智力與天才的領域，而且只會發覺自己不學無術，發覺自己的一切財富都是虛榮，不可以自滿，于是便進一步地證明了他頭腦清楚，他煞費心機，要給他的孩子以知識文化，這正是他敏銳地感到自己所缺少的；他就是這樣成了一個家族的始祖。

　　沒有學會閱讀古典作品原文的人們對于人類史只能有一點很不完備的知識，驚人的是它們并沒有一份現代語文的譯本，除非說我們的文化本身便可以作為這樣的一份文本的話。荷馬還從沒有用英文印行過，埃斯庫羅斯和維吉爾也從沒有，――那些作品是這樣優美，這樣堅實，美麗得如同黎明一樣；后來的作者，不管我們如何贊美他們的才能，就有也是極少能夠比得上這些古代作家的精美、完整與永生的、英雄的文藝勞動。從不認識它們的人，只叫人去忘掉它們。但當我們有了學問，有了稟賦，開始能研讀它們，欣賞它們時，那些人的話，我們立刻忘掉了。當我們稱為古典作品的圣物，以及比古典作品更古老，因而更少人知道的各國的經典也累積得更多時，當梵蒂岡教廷里放滿了吠陀經典，波斯古經和《圣經》，放滿了荷馬、但丁和莎士比亞的作品，繼起的世紀中能繼續地把它們的戰利品放在人類的公共場所時，那個世代定將更加豐富。有了這樣一大堆作品，我們才能有終于攀登天堂的希望。

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