Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1852-06-04
Thomas Hood on Books and Reading

| Washington, D. C., 1867.
Thomas Hood on Books and Reading.
TTbe Secretaries Of the Manchester
Athenaum Bazaar Committee, addressed
to Thomas Hood request that be would
allow his name to be placed on the list Of
patrons Of the approaching Bazaar. 10
this request the Secretaries received the
following Characteristic reply !
ST. JouN's woOp, Is July, ls43
From my bed) Il Elm-tree road:
GENTLEMEN-If my humble name can
be Of the least use for your purpose, it is
heartily at your service, with my best
wishes for the prosperity of the Manches-
ter Athsneum, and my warmsst approval
Of the objects of that institution
have elsewhere recorded my own deep
obligations to literature, that . natural
turn for reading and Intellectual pursuits
probably preserved me from moral ship-
wreck, so apt to befal those who are in
early life deprived of the parental pilotage.
At the very least my books keep me aloof
from the ring, the dog pit, the tavern, and
the saloon, with their degrading orgies.
For the closet associate of Pope and Addi-
son-the mind accustomed to the noble,
tho silent discourse of Shakespeare and
Milton-will hardly seek or put up with
low company or slang The reading ami
NAL will not be content with the british
wallowings that satisfy the unlearnsd pigs
Of the world.
Later experience enables me to depose
to the comfort and blessing that literature
can prove in seasons Of sickness and sorrow !;
how powerfully intellectual pursuits can
help in keeping the head from crasing, and
the heart from breaking nay, not to be
too grave, how generous mental food can
even atone for = meagre dietrich fare on
the paper for short commons on the cloth.
Poisoned by the malaria Of the Dutch
marshes, my stomach for many months
resolutely set itself against all fish, flesh
or fowl; my appetite had no more edge
than the German knife placed before me.
But luckily the mental palate and diges-
ton were still sensible and vigorous; and
whilst passed untasted every dish at the
Rhenish taAc d'hote, I could still enjoy
my Peregrine Pickle, and then feast after
tie manner of the ancients. There was
no yearning towards calls head la
torture. or sheep.s heart, but could still
relirh Head u ia Brunaen, and the Heart
of Midlothian.
Still more recently it was my misfortune,
with tolerable appetite, to be condemned
to lenten fare, like Sancho Panxa, by my
physician-to diet in fact lower than
any prescribed By the poor-law commission
ers !; all animal food, from bullock to a
rabbit, being strictly interdictsd, as we'll
as all fluids stronger than that which lays
dust, washes pianofortes, and waters poly
anthu.. But the feast of reason, and
the flow of soul' were still mine. Denied
beef, had Bulwer and Cowperj forbidden
mutton, there was Lamb, and in lieu Of
pork, the great Bacon aud Hogg.
Then as to beverage, it was hard doubt
less for Christian to set his face like a
Turk against the juice of the grare. But
eschewing wine, had still my Butler ;
and in the absence of liquor, all the choice
spirits from Thomas Brown to Thomas
Moore.
Thus, though confined, physically, tc
the drink that browns kittens, quafisd
mentally, not merely the best of our own
home made, but the rich, racy, sparkling
growth of France and Italy, Of Germany
and Spain-the champagne of Moliere
and the Monte Pulcane of Boccacio, ths
hook Of Schiller, and the Sherry of Ger
vantes. Depressed bodily by the fuit
} that damps every thing, got intellectual.
elevated with Milton, little merry Will
Swift, or rather jolly with Rabeiais, who's
Pantagruel, by the way, is quite equal II
} the best cruel with rum in it.
So far can literature pallatc or com
pensate for astronomical privaticns. Blu
there are other evils, great and small, il
, this world, which try the stoinoch les
: than the head, the heart and temper
bowls that will not roll right-well lai
schemes that will "gang agles"-and il
e wind that blow with the pertinacity {
monsoon. OF these, Providence has allotte
+ me full share; but still, parado1ical ,
! it may sound, my burden has been great
+ lightened by a load Of 60Oks The manne
Q of this will be best understood by felin
s illustration. Everybody has heard
Q the two Kilkenny cats, who devoured eac
Q other but it is not so generally know
. that they left behind them An orphs
kitten, which, true to the breed, began