And yet he is not a mere stonemason who cuts formless blocks according to prescribed measures. He works independently and contributes his own life-blood, sometimes suffering great depression, sometimes full of joy and happiness. The fruits that he proffers his age have grown from the deepest roots of his life. Therefore the honest mind that enters heartily into the labor of the learned, and not only inquires for the ultimate result of learning, but takes an interest in the inward struggle of the workman, is to him a valuable treasure, a rare happiness.--Felix now looked with emotion at his wife, who was striving to occupy this position, and tender emotions swelled the heart of the strong-minded man while he explained to her the subjects of his labors,--while he told her about the Roman _tribus_ and the duties of the senate. When all was noted down, Ilse laid her hands on the books and exclaimed: "Here I have all. What a small space they occupy, yet they employed many laborious days and nights, and the best portion of your noble life. This has often given you flushed cheeks as you have to-day. For this you have studied till your poor brain has been on fire, and for this you have always sat in a confined room. I have hitherto looked upon books with indifference; now for the first time I perceive what a book is, a quiet endless labor." "That is not to be said of all," replied the Professor; "but the superior ones are more even than a labor." He gazed lovingly on the walls along which the high book-shelves reached up to the very ceiling, so that the room looked as if papered with the backs of books. "The great number of them quite frightens me," said Ilse, helping him to make room for his own books in a dark corner, which was now cleared for them as their resting-place. "They look so calm and composed, and yet many of them may have been written with such impassioned feeling, and have excited their readers, too." "Yes," said her husband, "they are the great treasure-wards of the human race. They preserve all that is most valuable of what has ever been thought or discovered, from one century to another; and they proclaim what existed once, and once only, upon the earth. Here is what was produced full a thousand years before our era, and close beside them those that have come into the world but a few weeks ago." "Yet, from the coats that they wear, they look almost like each other," said Ilse. "I should have difficulty in distinguishing them." The Professor explained their arrangement and led her from one book shelf to another, pointing out those works which were his special favorites. "And you use them all?"