Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.
Speculation
Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process.
Life must be something more than dilettante speculation.
Shakespeare and Rembrandt have in common the faculty of quickening speculation and compelling the minds of men to combat and discussion.
For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.
When we come to images or memories or thoughts, speculation, while always closely related to practice, is more explicit, and it is in fact not immediately obvious that such processes can be described in any sense as practical.