Treasures of the British Library

I am feeling a bit emotional right now because I just got back from seeing the treasures of the British Library. I'll just list what I saw, and anyone who has a love of history, literature, religion, or music will know exactly what I mean. I saw: a First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, the earliest edition of his sonnets, the Beowulf manuscript (I couldn't tear my eyes away from this the first or the second time I looked at it), Milton's commonplace book (i.e. journal), Virginia Woolf's notebook for Mrs Dalloway, Sylvia Plath's notebook for The BellJar, Tess of the D'Urbervilles in Thomas Hardy's handwriting, Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte's handwriting, Persuasion in Jane Austen's handwriting, Austen's third diary/journal from her youth, compositions by Mozart and Haydn (with the notes written in their own handwriting), Beatles lyrics in the handwriting of Lennon and McCartiney (including Help!, Yesterday, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, etc; one was written on the back of an envelope), the Magna Carta (there were four versions created in 1215, but the one on display is quite likely the one actually sent to King John; there is also a version on display written in 1225 which was much easier to read, not that you can really read anything written before 1700 or so), the Codex Sinaiticus (the oldest copy of the entire New Testament, written in Greek), a Gutenburg Bible, a version of the epistle to the Hebrews written in the 200s (yes, the third century A.D.), the Lindisfarne Gospels (unfortunately only a facsimile is on display currently), and several equally old and stunning versions of the Qu'ran and other sacred texts. It was just absolutely incredible! I literally felt a bit weak-kneed and teary-eyed when I saw some of these things. I mean, I was separated by only a small pane of glass from books held and written in by Milton and Austen and Woolf. I can imagine them dipping their pens in ink and scratching away, thoughts and creative passions swirling within them as they wrote those words.