Experience Informs Us That The First Defence

History Has A Point Of View; It Cannot Be All Things To All People.

It Is Saying Less Than The Truth To Affirm That An Excellent Book (and The Remark Holds Almost Equally Good Of A Raphael As Of A Milton) Is Like A Well-chosen And Well-tended Fruit Tree. Its Fruits Are Not Of One Season Only. With The Due And Natural Intervals, We May Recur To It Year After Year, And It Will Supply The Same Nourishment And The Same Gratification, If Only We Ourselves Return To It With The Same Healthful Appetite.

To Believe And To Understand Are Not Diverse Things, But The Same Things In Different Periods Of Growth.

An Undevout Poet Is An Impossibility.

There Is No Such Thing As A Worthless Book Though There Are Some Far Worse Than Worthless; No Book That Is Not Worth Preserving, If Its Existence May Be Tolerated; As There May Be Some Men Whom It May Be Proper To Hang, But None Should Be Suffered To Starve.