Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1838-07-04
[For the Herald Of the Times.
ROCKS.

the subject of books. remember, some
years ago, when was very much per-
/ picked myself with the multitude Of
books which solicited my attention.
when was distracted almost TO the
point Of despair to decide which book
of the million should read first, II
happened to meet in an old writer who
lived some two hundred years ago, the
following passage in which he vents his
vexation at the vast variety of books
with which even then the world was
flooded "'Tis not" says he, ga mel
ancholy wish Of my own merely, but the
desire Of better heads, that there were
a general Synod-not to mite the in-
compatible difference Of religion, but for
the benefit of learning, to reduce it, as
il lay at first, in few, solid authors,
and to condemn to the fire those swarms
and millions Of frhapsodies, Dcgotten on
ly to distract and abuse the weaker
Judgment Of readers, and to maintain
the trade and mystery oftypographers. "
IL there was ground for this complaint
two centuries ago, what would the old
philosopher who made il have said if he
had lived in our day / do not think,
however, natural as the complaint was,
that the remedy suggested would be n
good one. do not think It would be
well to commit TO the flames all but the
few solid authors-because there is no
writer who has the whole truth, and c.
ven the meanest may cast his mite into
the treasury. Minds are as various as
faces--no two ever were exactly alike,
and every new writer who makes his
book in any degree the image Of his own
mind and not the mere copy Of another's S
must present whatever truth he does
present in new and peculiar Light
II is well to look at truth-even old
truth, oil all sides-in all its bearings
and in all its colorings. For this rca-
son it seems to me happy thing that
there is such multitude Of books be-
fore the public.
The poet Milton in his address to the
English Parliament in behalf Of the lib
erty of unlicensed printing, expresses
very beautifully the idea which | have
wished to convey. He says "truth,
indeed came once into the world with
her Divine master, and was perfect
shape most glorious to look on but
when hc ascended and his Apostles af-
ter him were laid asleep, then straight
arose wicked race of deceiyers, who,
as that story goes Of the Egyptian Ty-
phon with his conspirators, how they
dealt with the God Osiris,--took the
Virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form
into n thousand pieces and scattered
them to the four winds. From that time
ever since, the sad friends of Truth,
such as burst appear, initiating the care
ful search that Isis made for the mang-
led body Of Osiris, went up and down
gathering up limb by limb still as they
could find them. We have not yet found
them all, nor ever shall do, till her mas
ter's second coming he shall bring to-
gethcr every joint and member and shall
mould them into an immortal feature of
loveliness and perfection. The moral
Of this is, in plain prose, that every man
has something of the truth, and every
book has some good in it-and that it is
happy thing for the cause Of truth,
that there is such variety of opinions
in the world and such a multitude of
books.
But what has all this to do, you will
say, with our little Library Surely
there is no danger that we in this unlit-
erary town and with our scarty supply
of volumes, shall be distracted or per-
picked by the multiplication of books.
Perhaps few Of us have as yet known
by experience much about those feelings
which have been describing, and yet
| think some Of us must have known
something of that indccison and relu CT
ancc to read, which arises from being
beset with numerous books, all recon-
mended by judicious persons, and all
undoubtedly worth reading.
1t may not, then, be aniss to offer
you a few remarks on some Of the dan
gers to which we are exposed by the
multiplication of books. Some persons
are apt to think that there are certain
books which must be waded through as
matter Of course consider them
selves bound to read book because it
is generally rcad-and some fancy it
merit to have read book which is not
generally known--and how much just
ness there is in the remark Of Bishop
Butler, "Not to mention" he says,