History

At closing time, they did not go home; they went to the spots they felt the most safe and secreted away and began to read. The light was meager (for they didn't dare turn the overhead lights back on), the ghosts were sometimes annoying, and the silence of the library could be occasionally unsettling. It was helpful to know that a beating heart and a like mind was elsewhere near you doing the same thing. They had made the list together and then divided it (to conquer), wrapping up every session with a discussion to share key concepts; they were focused on history for the foreseeable future (consulting everything that they could find translated and reprinted from the beginning of time recorded to the present day). They had become friends agreeing with Santayana (that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"[circa 1905]) and wished to improve themselves (and the world indirectly) by doing better and understanding more. It was an imperfect and quite possibly pointless effort, but they also agreed with the Bhagavad Gita (that "on this path no effort is wasted, no gain is ever reversed; even a little of this practice will shelter you from great sorrow" [circa C2 BCE]).