Explore "The Bibliomaniac's Prayer" by Eugene Field on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's way / That I may truths eternal seek; / I need protecting care to-day, -- / My purse is light, my flesh is weak. / So banish from my erring heart / All baleful appetites and hints / Of Satan's fascinating art, / Of first editions, and of prints. / Direct me in some godly walk / Which leads away from bookish strife, / That I with pious deed and talk / May extra-illustrate my life.
But if, O Lord, it pleaseth Thee / To keep me in temptation's way, / I humbly ask that I may be / Most notably beset to-day; / Let my temptation be a book, / Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep, / Whereon when other men shall look, / They'll wail to know I got it cheap. / Oh, let it such a volume be / As in rare copperplates abounds, / Large paper, clean, and fair to see, / Uncut, unique, unknown to Lowndes.