We are all her messengers sent out
to discover things, and bring back news of them."
After a little talk with Connie, I retired to the study, which was on the
same floor as her room completing, indeed, the whole of that part of the
house, which, seen from without, looked like a separate building; for it
had a roof of its own, and stood higher up the rock than the rest of the
dwelling. Here I began to glance over the books. To have the run of another
man's library, especially if it has all been gathered by himself, is like
having a pass-key into the chambers of his thought. Only, one must be wary,
when he opens them, what marks on the books he takes for those of the
present owner. A mistake here would breed considerable confusion and
falsehood in any judgment formed from the library. I found, however, one
thing plain enough, that Shepherd had kept up that love for an older
English literature, which had been one of the cords to draw us towards each
other when we were students together. There had been one point on which we
especially agreed--that a true knowledge of the present, in literature, as
in everything else, could only be founded upon a knowledge of what had gone
before; therefore, that any judgment, in regard to the literature of the
present day, was of no value which was not guided and influenced by a real
acquaintance with the best of what had gone before, being liable to be
dazzled and misled by novelty of form and other qualities which, whatever
might be the real worth of the substance, were, in themselves, purely
ephemeral.
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