The Haunted Bookshop: BOOK MORALITY

Reading third chapter into The Haunted Bookshop (my post here), I came across a text that I liked very much, and which Roger Mifflin the proprietor of The Haunted Bookshop is also very much fond of. He had it hung over his own desk while I’ve reproduced it below:

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ON THE RETURN OF A BOOK LENT TO A FRIEND

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks for the safe return of this book which having endured the perils of my friend's bookcase, and the bookcases of my friend's friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition.

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks that my friend did not see fit to give this book to his infant as a plaything, nor use it as an ash-tray for his burning cigar, nor as a teething-ring for his mastiff.

WHEN I lent this book I deemed it as lost: I was resigned to the bitterness of the long parting: I never thought to look upon its pages again.

BUT NOW that my book is coming back to me, I rejoice and am exceedingly glad! Bring hither the fatted morocco and let us rebind the volume and set it on the shelf of honour: for this my book was lent, and is returned again.

PRESENTLY, therefore, I may return some of the books I myself have borrowed.

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(I believe this is how every booklover feels whenever a book is borrowed by their friends; I certainly feel this way…)