the book may be preferred by its author and may outweigh its author in several ways one of which is that it exists with every age despite the differences in eras and the distance between countries. this is something that is impossible for the author of the book and the one who disputes the question and answer. the scholar may pass away and his books remain and the commentator may perish but his trace remains. were it not for what the ancients drew for us in their books and immortalized from their wondrous wisdom and recorded from the types of their conduct until we witnessed through them what was hidden from us and opened through them what was closed to us and gathered to our few their many and realized what we would not have realized except through them our share in wisdom would have been lost our cause of knowledge would have been cut off the ambition would have been shortened and the intention would have weakened so the opinion would have become barren the thoughts would have died and the mind would have perished.
والكتاب قد يفضل صاحبه، ويرجح على واضعه بأمور منها أنه يوجد مع كل زمان على تفاوت الأعصار، وبعد ما بين الأمصار. وذلك أمر يستحيل في واضع الكتاب، والمنازع بالمسألة والجواب. وقد يذهب العالم وتبقى كتبه، ويفنى المعقب ويبقى أثره. ولولا ما رسمت لنا الأوائل في كتبها، وخلدت من عجيب حكمها، ودونت من أنواع سيرها؛ حتى شاهدنا بها ما غاب عنا، وفتحنا بها المستغلق علينا، فجمعنا إلى قليلنا كثيرهم، وأدركنا ما لم نكن ندركه إلا بهم لقد خس حظنا في الحكمة، وانقطع سببنا من المعرفة، وقصرت الهمة، وضعفت النية، فاعتقم الرأي وماتت الخواطر، ونبا العقل.