Clarence Day: Truthteller

The publishing world has been in an uproar for the last few years over the supposed triumph of e-books over the printed books with which we are all familiar. Amongst the clamor of people who claim e-books are the future, and the competing chorus of voices that argue passionately that they love the feel of books and won't change to the new device, we should all remember what Clarence Day said about books. He was speaking the truth when he wrote that "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead." The important point, I think, is that men and women recognize and cherish the truth, in whatever form it makes its appearance.