Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1849-05-23
FIVE PAGES A DAY.

ware of undertaking loo much. There
cannot be greater fault in tie business
oflife. knowledge is~reauired--wealIl
gained-(if that knowledge is worll
having, or that wealth 10 be reckonee
npon witlr safety,)>by little and little
High prizes neHor made man rich
Vast and sudden acquisitions by the
memory never made man wise. BE-
patient. hopeful, persevering. Be salts:
fed with very lille at first. Be not
discouraged, eventhonsh, for long years,
you may no, be sensible Of great pro-
gress in your pursuit. Be faithful to
yourself, and your reward is certain.
Five pages day read carefully, apd
thought over, will do more towards
strengthening The upper faculties of MAN,
than three hundred pages day, read as
three hundred pages must be read,
though one were to do nothing else.
Al the end of five years. he who has
read five octave pages a day, regularly,
every day, and neither more nor less,
under anylemptation, has read 9,l25
pages-equal to thirty volumes octave
Of 300 pages each.
Now, thirty volumes octave, Of we'll
chosen, well-understood, and well.di-
gesled science, would he worth more
than collegiate education, to ninety
nine persons out Of a hundred.
Is there any man, or any boy, so busy,
that lie cannot find time to read five
octave pages7 One volume Of 300
pages in two mon,hs7 Or six volumes
in yearl
Many are they, among women and
eills, and men, more foolish than either,
who average volume day, year after
year, Of what is called miscellaneous
reading novels, newspapers and maga-
zines. And what is their reward? Al
the end of long life, what are they
good for2 What do they know? What
are they able 10 communicate TO others?
To their companions for life2 To their
To their feIow-nien What
do they isave behind them to be. re:
bya7sS=.s.... 49,, ,.zea4s--,sy ,"--;.'
Suppose they had been satisfied with
reading five pages day-and only five
pages day-suppose the average read
ing life to os fifty years--aud that all
began to read with advantage at five.
Instead of thousands or tens Of ,hous-
ands of books hurried through and for
gotten, leaving no more impression upon
the understanding than the drifting clouds
leave upon The summer sea-in no way
exercising, clearing up, or strengthening
The iudgment-they would have read, or
studied, thought over and remembered,
but so as TO be always ready TO apply
their knowledge to the every day con-
Germs of human life, only two hundred
and scvcn,y-lhrce volumes, octave.
But if these two hundred and seventy
three volumes were properly chosen.
and we'll adapted in every case to the
character Of the individual
he would be master of more facts; he
would be familiar with more science; he
would be richer in the knowledge that is
gained by books, than perhaps any other
living man of equal capacity. In other
words, he would know more. And yet
he would meet with persons every day
who had managed to read in the course
oflheir fifty yeals ten or twelve thous-
and vo!umes-of nobody knows what.
Suppose young man about learning
a trade. He is already acquainted with
reading, writing, and arithmetic. He
has had a COMMON school education, and
nothing more. He has been brought up
10 believe that learning is ii sort of lux
ury-onIy to be had in colleges: that
tile Learned professors, as they are called
are the anointed rulers of the multitude.
At any rate, he sees that such is the
fact, understand it as he may
Ii never enters his head, poor fellow
that he can educate himself without the
help of mortal man-wilhout his living
help, that is. He wants 10 take high
place among The suns of God-but feels
discouraged and ashamed. Lie is poor
and his bread must be earned by il
life of hardship, drudgerv and self de-
nial; and it never for momeut passes
his mind that Books are Teach
crs--,l,al he wants no other help than
he may find in any one Of thousand
libraries, open 10 all the world. STILL
less, that if he can save time to read five
pages a day, lie may make himself any.
thing lie peases in time.
lshe printer, a ship-builder, a black
smith, or an apothecary? Is he mer.
chant or manufacturer a tanner and
currier, a mason, shoemaker; or any
ono of hundred classes in life, he may
make himself thoroughly master mol
only of,,all that concerns his own parIicu'
lar busiaess-immediately or remotely
its history, progress, and changes
but of almost every collateral branch o.