This wonderful work is one of the few books which may be read repeatedly at different times, and each time with a new and different pleasure. I read it once as a theologian--and let me assure you that there is great theological acumen in the work--once with devotional feelings--and once as a poet. I could not have believed beforehand that Calvinism could be painted in such exquisitely delightful colours.... The _Pilgrim's Progress_ is composed in the lowest style of English, without slang or false grammar. If you were to polish it, you would at once destroy the reality of the vision. For works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.--S. T. COLERIDGE. _Table Talk._ NO BOOK LIKE THE BIBLE I would have you every morning read a portion of the Holy Scriptures, till you have read the Bible from the beginning to the end: observe it well, read it reverently and attentively, set your heart upon it, and lay it up in your memory and make it the direction of your life: it will make you a wise and a good man. I have been acquainted somewhat with men and books, and have had long experience in learning, and in the world: there is no book like the Bible for excellent learning, wisdom, and use; and it is want of understanding in them that think or speak otherwise.--SIR M. HALE. _A Letter to one of his Sons, after his recovery from the Smallpox._ TO A FAMILY BIBLE What household thoughts around thee, as their shrine, Cling reverently!--of anxious looks beguiled, My mother's eyes, upon thy page divine, Each day were bent--her accents gravely mild, Breathed out thy love: whilst I, a dreamy child, Wandered on breeze-like fancies oft away, To some lone tuft of gleaming spring-flowers wild, Some fresh-discovered nook for woodland play, Some secret nest: yet would the solemn Word At times, with kindlings of young wonder heard, Fall on my wakened spirit, there to be A seed not lost:--for which, in darker years, O Book of Heaven! I pour, with grateful tears, Heart blessings on the holy dead and thee! FELICIA D. HEMANS. THE BOOK OF BOOKS