Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-11-30
For the Green Mountain Freeman
WINTER EVENINGS.

~.s .... For the Green Mountain Freeman.
.. ... WINTER EVENINGS.
They are coming-the long delightful evenings
of Autumn and Winter, and many a heart
beats high with glowing anticipations of the
many pleasures they will bring. And how, kind
reader, will you beguile these evening hours'
Will you waste your time, and hard-gained
earnings, in useless luxuries and idle amuseme-
ments! Poor indeed is he whose only sense of
enjoyment is in the trivial pastilnes of the ball
room or tho card-table. Are you content to
squander the leisure hours of youths delicious
season in wanton idleness In after life, unless
your soul is devoid of every noble aspiration,
the thought of time mis-spent will awaken feel
ings of the keenest regret.
To many, the hours of evening are all they
can call their own; but these even, if spent
with prudence and economy, will avail them
much in amassing fund of useful knowledge,
and in dsoiplining and perfecting the intelec-
tual powers, thereby enlarging their capacities
for enjoyment and usefulness
The mind demands food, as well as the body,
and as it is infinitely superior to the body, how
much more important that its wants be needed.
What can be more pleasant than to draw near
III. ca.-.ful freside, when all without is drear
ard nninviting, and from some useful and enter
Timing volume enjoy an intellectual feast The
quiet evening time, when the hustle of the busy
day is bushed and its labor and cares are over,
is peculiarly fitted for reading, for careful study
and reflective thought.
By books We are brought in immediate con.
tact with the master minds of the world. And
as we gradually, though imperceptibly, assimi'
late ourselves to those with whom we intimately
associate, so books, if selected judiciously, aRt
read with care, may be made, to great degree
instrumental in the formation of character. On'
furnishes US with valuable facts and suggestion
deduced from a long and varied experience; an
other wildly portrays the scenes and character
of foreign climes and people. In this the fruit
Of learned and laborious Investigations in tn
world of science are spread out in generous pro
fusion in that We are made conyersant will
ono who has distinguished himself by his illus
trous deeds, Or the power and greatness of hi
intellect. This abounds in profound and myste
rioas truths discovered in exploring the bound
less field of knowledge; that gives free scope t
the imagination, and pleases most when fancy
fight is widest. In short, there is no facult
of the mind which caunot find its appropriat
food in books. The incest taste can be grstifie
for tho world is full of then-they are With
the reach Of all, for were ono tishe' ofthe tim
and money expended in supplying the imagnar
wants of tho body, employed in enriching an
adjoining tIc mind, every home might be grace
with handsome library, which, if well chosen
would contain mine of useful knowledge
e. Then read, those long evenings, read much an
carefully and be your vocation never SO hun
bic, you may vie, at least in point of general il
telligence, with those far above you. WILL.
Washington, Sept, 1854.