Friday, August 20, 2010

 

Books and Felicity

Augustine Birrell, "Gossip in a Library," from In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays (London: Elliot Stock, 1905), pp. 43-49 (at 43):
There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven...
As for books in Eden, I once proved that there were such, by the following irrefutable syllogism:
Adam lacked nothing he needed in Paradise.
Books are necessities of life.
Therefore, there were books in Paradise.
As for books in heaven, I now offer a similar syllogism:
The denizens of Heaven are perfectly happy.
Perfect happiness is inconceivable without books.
Therefore, there are books in Heaven.
The following painting by Jean Jacques Henner is entitled "La Liseuse." Filthy minds may regard it as titillating erotica, but to pure spirits like me it is actually a chaste, devotional picture—I fancy that it represents Eve reading in Eden:


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# posted by Michael Gilleland @ 5:59 AM


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