Books are the greatest and truest friends man can have. In his youth they delight him, in middle age they offer seclusion from the world, and when he is old--they remain after other friends have gone. He who has the power of reading for pleasure is fortified against the vicissitudes of life.
It is sad that a modern University helps little in forming this valuable friendship. Upper Widener is hardly the place for an old pipe and a good book; even the Farnsworth Room in spite of its delightful and charming atmosphere falls short of the ideal. These are places for industrious study or profitable reading but not for "just reading."
There is in the University one sanctuary where busting efficiency and blazing lights have not penetrated. In the Union library there are good books, staunch old friends that have proved their worth before generations; there are comfortable chairs into which one may sink deep in luxury, thoughtless of decorum; here one can cram the briar full of fragrant Virginian, light it with freedom and lie back in blissful serenity and ease.
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President Lowell's Sunday Reception
