The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1855-01-27
Cheate ON the Priceless val ae Of the Love Of
-1tr q Reading. ,s-.s

Reading. ~
I come to add the final reason why the ,pork.
ing man-by whom mean the whole brother
hood of industvy-should set on mental culture
and that knowledge which is wisdom a value
SO high-Only not supreme-subordinate alone
to the exercise and hopes Of religion ITSELF
And that is, that therein he shall en- surely
find rest from labor; suecor under its burdens:
forgetfulness OF cares composure in its annoy-
ances 1t is not always that the busy day is
followed by the peaceful night. 1t is not al
ways that fatigue wins sleep. Often some yex-
alton outside of the toll that has exhausted the
frame some loss in q bargain some loss by
an insolvency some unforeseen rise or fall in
prices; some triumph of a mean or fraudulent
competitor "the laws delay, the proud mans
continuity, the insolence of officer or some one
of the spurns that patient merit from the I'M
worthy takes"-sOme selfreproach, perhaps
follow you within the door chill the Preside !;
sow the pillow with thorns, and the dark care
is lost in the last waking thought, and haunts
the vivid dream. Happy. then, is he who has
laid up in his youth, and held fast in fortune, q
genuine and passionate love of reading. True
balm of hurt minds ; of surer and more health
full charm than "popy or mandragora, or all
the drowsy syrups fthe WORLDLY that sin
gle taste, by that single capacity, he may
bound in moment into the still region of de-
| lSutlul otuulcS, duu NC al resi-. ne RECALLS Tue
annoy nce that pursues him reflects that he
has done all that might become man to avoid
or bear it he INDUCES in one good long, hui
man sigh, picks up the volume where the mark
kept his place, and in about the same time that
it takes the Mahammedan in the Spectator to
put his head in the bucket of water and raise it
out, he finds himself exploring the arrow
marked ruins Of Nineveh with Layard OF
worshipping at the springfield of the stu
pendous Missouri with Clark and Lewis =
or watching with Columbus for the sublime
moment of the rising of the curtain from
before the great mystery of the sea or looking
reverentially on while Socrates-the discourse
ofimmortality ended-refusing the offer of es
cape, takes in his hand the poison, to die in
obedience to the unrighteous sentence of the
law or perhaps, it is in contemplation of some
vast spectacle or phenomenon of nature thai
he has found his quick peace-the renewed ex
ploration of one of her great laws-or some
glimpse opened by the pencil of st. Pierre Of
Humboldt. or Chateaubriand, or Wilson, or the
=" blcssedncss and glory of her own deep, calm
and mighty existence"
Let the case of busy lawyer testify to the
priceless value of the love of reading. HI
comes home. his temples throbbing. his nerves
shattered, from trial of week surprised ani
alarmed by the charge of the Judge, and pale
with anxiety about the verdict of the mex
morning. not at all satisfied with what he ha
done himself though he does not see how ht
could have improved it recalling with dreat
and selfdisparagemert, if not with envy, tn,
brilliant effort of his antagonist, and torment
ing himself with the vain wish that he coult
have replied to it-and altogether very mis-
cradle subject, and in as unfavorable condi
ton to accept comfort from wife and children
as poor Christian in the first three panes of tht
Pilgrims Progress. With superhuman effor
he opens his book, and in the twinklng of al
eye he is looking into the full " orb of Homerit
or Miltonic song" or he stands in the CROWD
breathless yet swayed as forests or the sea by
Withdrawing and to Judge the Plcadings fol-
the Crowd ar the philosophy which soothed
Cicero or Boethius in their Affections, in exile
in prison, and the contemplation of death
breathes over his petty cares like the sweet
south or Pope or Horace laugh him into good
humor, or he walks with Eneas and the Sybi
in the mild light of the world of the laureled
dead-and the court house is as completely
forgotten as the dream of preadamite life
Well may he prize that endeared charm, so eff
fectual and safe, without which the brain had
long ago been chilled by paralysis, or set on
fire by insanity!