“The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that conceived and composed that book.”

The Life of Dryden
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
Context: It is not by comparing line with line, that the merit of great works is to be estimated, but by their general effects and ultimate result. It is easy to note a weak line, and write one more vigorous in its place; to find a happiness of expression in the original, and transplant it by force into the version: but what is given to the parts may be subducted from the whole, and the reader may be weary, though the critick may commend. Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away. He only is the master, who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day.

Tout livre a pour collaborateur son lecteur

Source: Biographical notice http://www.evene.fr/celebre/biographie/maurice-barres-499.php on Evene

Source: Lectures on Literature (1980)

"Poetry" (1977)

Variant: Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.

The Life of Milton
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)