We are not only rendering3 service to God in preparing volumes of new books, but also exercising an office of sacred piety4 when we treat books carefully, and again when we restore them to their proper places and commend them to inviolable custody; that they may rejoice in purity while we have them in our hands, and rest securely when they are put back in their repositories. And surely next to the vestments and vessels5 dedicated6 to the Lord’s body, holy books deserve to be rightly treated by the clergy7, to which great injury is done so often as they are touched by unclean hands. Wherefore we deem it expedient8 to warn our students of various negligences, which might always be easily avoided and do wonderful harm to books.
And in the first place as to the opening and closing of books, let there be due moderation, that they be not unclasped in precipitate9 haste, nor when we have finished our inspection10 be put away without being duly closed. For it behoves us to guard a book much more carefully than a boot.
But the race of scholars is commonly badly brought up, and unless they are bridled11 in by the rules of their elders they indulge in infinite puerilities. They behave with petulance12, and are puffed13 up with presumption14, judging of everything as if they were certain, though they are altogether inexperienced.
You may happen to see some headstrong youth lazily lounging over his studies, and when the winter’s frost is sharp, his nose running from the nipping cold drips down, nor does he think of wiping it with his pocket-handkerchief until he has bedewed the book before him with the ugly moisture. Would that he had before him no book, but a cobbler’s apron15! His nails are stuffed with fetid filth16 as black as jet, with which he marks any passage that pleases him. He distributes a multitude of straws, which he inserts to stick out in different places, so that the halm may remind him of what his memory cannot retain. These straws, because the book has no stomach to digest them, and no one takes them out, first distend17 the book from its wonted closing, and at length, being carelessly abandoned to oblivion, go to decay. He does not fear to eat fruit or cheese over an open book, or carelessly to carry a cup to and from his mouth; and because he has no wallet at hand he drops into books the fragments that are left. Continually chattering18, he is never weary of disputing with his companions, and while he alleges19 a crowd of senseless arguments, he wets the book lying half open in his lap with sputtering20 showers. Aye, and then hastily folding his arms he leans forward on the book, and by a brief spell of study invites a prolonged nap; and then, by way of mending the wrinkles, he folds back the margin21 of the leaves, to the no small injury of the book. Now the rain is over and gone, and the flowers have appeared in our land. Then the scholar we are speaking of, a neglecter rather than an inspecter of books, will stuff his volume with violets, and primroses22, with roses and quatrefoil. Then he will use his wet and perspiring23 hands to turn over the volumes; then he will thump24 the white vellum with gloves covered with all kinds of dust, and with his finger clad in long-used leather will hunt line by line through the page; then at the sting of the biting flea25 the sacred book is flung aside, and is hardly shut for another month, until it is so full of the dust that has found its way within, that it resists the effort to close it.
But the handling of books is specially26 to be forbidden to those shameless youths, who as soon as they have learned to form the shapes of letters, straightway, if they have the opportunity, become unhappy commentators27, and wherever they find an extra margin about the text, furnish it with monstrous28 alphabets, or if any other frivolity29 strikes their fancy, at once their pen begins to write it. There the Latinist and sophister and every unlearned writer tries the fitness of his pen, a practice that we have frequently seen injuring the usefulness and value of the most beautiful books.
Again, there is a class of thieves shamefully30 mutilating books, who cut away the margins31 from the sides to use as material for letters, leaving only the text, or employ the leaves from the ends, inserted for the protection of the book, for various uses and abuses — a kind of sacrilege which should be prohibited by the threat of anathema32.
Again, it is part of the decency33 of scholars that whenever they return from meals to their study, washing should invariably precede reading, and that no grease-stained finger should unfasten the clasps, or turn the leaves of a book. Nor let a crying child admire the pictures in the capital letters, lest he soil the parchment with wet fingers; for a child instantly touches whatever he sees. Moreover, the laity34, who look at a book turned upside down just as if it were open in the right way, are utterly35 unworthy of any communion with books. Let the clerk take care also that the smutty scullion reeking36 from his stewpots does not touch the lily leaves of books, all unwashed, but he who walketh without blemish37 shall minister to the precious volumes. And, again, the cleanliness of decent hands would be of great benefit to books as well as scholars, if it were not that the itch38 and pimples39 are characteristic of the clergy.
Whenever defects are noticed in books, they should be promptly40 repaired, since nothing spreads more quickly than a tear and a rent which is neglected at the time will have to be repaired afterwards with usury41.
Moses, the gentlest of men, teaches us to make bookcases most neatly42, wherein they may be protected from any injury: Take, he says, this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant43 of the Lord your God. O fitting place and appropriate for a library, which was made of imperishable shittim-wood, and was all covered within and without with gold! But the Saviour44 also has warned us by His example against all unbecoming carelessness in the handling of books, as we read in S. Luke. For when He had read the scriptural prophecy of Himself in the book that was delivered to Him, He did not give it again to the minister, until He had closed it with his own most sacred hands. By which students are most clearly taught that in the care of books the merest trifles ought not to be neglected.
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1
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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bridled
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| 给…套龙头( bridle的过去式和过去分词 )； 控制； 昂首表示轻蔑（或怨忿等）； 动怒，生气 | |
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petulance
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| n.发脾气，生气，易怒，暴躁，性急 | |
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puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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distend
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| vt./vi.（使）扩大，（使）扩张 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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alleges
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| 断言，宣称，辩解( allege的第三人称单数 ) | |
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sputtering
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| n.反应溅射法；飞溅；阴极真空喷镀；喷射v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的现在分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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21
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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primroses
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| n.报春花( primrose的名词复数 )；淡黄色；追求享乐（招至恶果） | |
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perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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flea
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| n.跳蚤 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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commentators
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| n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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shamefully
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| 可耻地； 丢脸地； 不体面地； 羞耻地 | |
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margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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anathema
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| n.诅咒；被诅咒的人(物)，十分讨厌的人(物) | |
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decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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laity
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| n.俗人；门外汉 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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reeking
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| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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blemish
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| v.损害；玷污；瑕疵，缺点 | |
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38
itch
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| n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望 | |
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pimples
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| n.丘疹，粉刺，小脓疱( pimple的名词复数 ) | |
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40
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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41
usury
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| n.高利贷 | |
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42
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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43
covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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44
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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