Let your bookcases and your shelves be your gardens and your pleasure-grounds. Pluck the fruit that grows therein, gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh.

The image turns a private library into a cultivated landscape: shelves become “gardens,” and reading becomes an act of harvesting. The “fruit” suggests practical nourishment—knowledge, ethical instruction, and intellectual skill—while “roses, spices, and myrrh” evoke pleasure, refinement, and even healing or sacred uses. The line thus argues that books are not merely utilitarian tools but a source of delight and enrichment, offering both sustenance and fragrance. Implicitly, it also frames study as an active practice: one must “pluck” and “gather,” selecting and internalizing what is valuable rather than merely owning texts.