Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books — even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.

Gladstone’s remark treats books not as inert objects but as a kind of living company—“society” that can welcome, console, and stimulate even before one begins to read. The image of entering a room “full of books” suggests the cultivated interior life of the Victorian reader and statesman: a library becomes a social space where conversation is conducted across time with authors and ideas. The quote also implies that the mere presence of books carries moral and intellectual promise; they signify accumulated thought and invite engagement. In this sense, Gladstone elevates reading from pastime to companionship and frames libraries as hospitable environments for the mind.