CHAPTER XIV
WHO OUGHT TO BE SPECIAL LOVERS OF BOOKS
To him who recollects what has been said before, it is plain and
evident who ought to be the chief lovers of books. For those who
have most need of wisdom in order to perform usefully the duties
of their position, they are without doubt most especially bound
to show more abundantly to the sacred vessels of wisdom the
anxious affection of a grateful heart. Now it is the office of
the wise man to order rightly both himself and others, according
to the Phoebus of philosophers, Aristotle, who deceives not nor
is deceived in human things. Wherefore princes and prelates,
judges and doctors, and all other leaders of the commonwealth, as
more than others they have need of wisdom, so more than others
ought they to show zeal for the vessels of wisdom.
Boethius, indeed, beheld Philosophy bearing a sceptre in her left
hand and books in her right, by which it is evidently shown to
all men that no one can rightly rule a commonwealth without
books. Thou, says Boethius, speaking to Philosophy, hast
sanctioned this saying by the mouth of Plato, that states would
be happy if they were ruled by students of philosophy, or if
their rulers would study philosophy. And again, we are taught by
the very gesture of the figure that in so far as the right hand
is better than the left, so far the contemplative life is more
worthy than the active life; and at the same time we are shown
that the business of the wise man is to devote himself by turns,
now to the study of truth, and now to the dispensation of
temporal things.
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