SIXTH READER. ON BOOKS. 1. It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in reach of all. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts and pour their souls into ours. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. 2. Books give to all who will faithfully use them the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am: no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling: if the Sacred Writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton' will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakspere 2 to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin3 to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live. 3. To make this means of culture effectual, a man must select good books, such as have been written by rightminded and strong-minded men, real thinkers, who, instead of diluting by repetition what others say, have something to say for themselves. These works must not be skimmed over for amusement, but read with fixed attention and a reverential love of truth. 4. In selecting books we may be aided much by those 1 See page 228. 2 See Reader V. page 238, note. 3 See page 195. who have studied more than ourselves. This selection should meet the peculiar wants, the natural thirst of the mind, and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought. Nothing can supply the place of books. They are cheering or soothing companions in solitude, illness, affliction. The wealth of both continents would not compensate for the good they impart. Let every man, therefore, if possible, gather some good books under his roof and obtain access to some library. Almost any luxury should be sacrificed to this. 5. One of the very interesting features of our times is the multiplication of books and their distribution through all conditions of society. At a small expense a man can now possess himself of the most precious treasures of English literature. Books, once confined to a few by their costliness, are now accessible to the multitude; and in this way a change of habits is going on in society highly favourable to the culture of the people. Instead of depending on casual rumour and loose conversation for most of their knowledge and objects of thought, instead of forming their judgments in crowds and receiving their chief excitement from the voice of neighbours, men are now learning to study and reflect alone, to follow out subjects continuously, to determine for themselves what shall engage their minds, and to call to their aid the knowledge, original views, and reasonings of men of all countries and ages.-Channing (1780–1842). THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA-1837. 1. The accession of a female sovereign to the throne of our country was of itself a popular event. It was a change and a novelty for the unthinking multitude. It was an omen of national prosperity to the more cultivated, and all who had read our national history; it called to mind how England had become great and glorious under the reigns of Elizabeth and Anne. |