The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1857-12-24

| several Religious and Theological Re
= views, making six or eight in all instead
/ Of twenty or thirty as We now have them
; would we'll represent this department OF
American Literature. As in Great Brit.
ain, the four Reviews, (Edinburg, Lon.
! don, Westminster, and North British
: and Blackwoods Magazine-fve in all
represent all the phases of British thought
SO here, among larger community Of
: readers, some six OF eight sterling publ
cations should suffice for all our wants.
, And it must and will come to that. As
among the Juveniles already, t ncle Merry 5
Museum, and Woodworth, and Uncle Cy-
:! rus, and Phillips, and Abbott's Stories,
believe, have all united into one so
among their seniors, the pondrous wheels
will not long revolve until there is 4 new
combination. The times favorth change,
and the consolidation will undoubtedly
take place
Let ne commend to the Library Asso-
citation then the propriety Of subscribing
to the Reviews when thus combined For
years past the four British Reviews and
Blackwood have been reprinted in New
York, on that cheap and useful scale, that
/, $40 has been the price for them all, cost
ing $50, or over in Great Britain. Proba-
bly, you could not obtain so much and so
varied, and so useful reading any where, as
by subscribing for these 4 similar
, amount Of money-S10 $50 in ALI would
furnish your Library every year with need
ed American publications and the same
| remarks and even stronger ones could be
made as to the value and necessity of
these. American Periodicals you must
, have.
! | hope you will be willing to do some
, thing continually for the increase of your
t Library. You cannot buy everything il
is true. Buy then the most necessary
the best. l am happy to see on youl
: shelves SO many and So well selected books
f | am delighted to hear of the origin Of
/ the Library. They who were last at the
cross and first at the tomb of Jesus, have
/ been patterns for US men more than twice
| Can we the men, not aid in enlarging and
enriching what has so we'll been begun
| Let the ten, or fifteen subscribers in this
| place to IIarper's Magazine, unite in tax.
ing, say two copies of that, and give the
surplus tosomething to else. Letevery read
er then dispatch the same, in the first pc
rusal in one day, OF less, and how mucf
! more good could be accomplished with
}, the same amount OF money than at pres
, ent. And this leads me to speak of
i 3rd. How We SHOULD READ7 As
we cannot read everything, and it becom cs
important to know what to read SO we
need to know how to read. | will speak
f now to the younger persons present, and
give them some practical directions on
this point, drawn from my own habits and
, experience. I hope it may prove useful.
! Let me say then under this head: Some
books should be read fast. The newspa-
pers always be read hastily, we have nc
time to waste upon them. Other books
should be read very slowly and thought
j, fully. 1t is impossible to read a book full
4 Iofthoughts very rapidly. Andsuch books
: full Of thought you need to read. Then
we should read sometimes fast, sometimes
slowly, according to the subject in hand.
Again, we ought not to pass over por-
tions of the book because We cannot fully
understand them. Read it over again un-
til you do understand. But pass cursori-
Ily over portions of it very easy to under
stand, or in which you feel less interest
because Of its unlmportance.
Again, read by subjects. One thing
illustrates or unfolds another. Keep this
in mind as you read continually.
i Make it also, your endeavor to learn
something from everything you read. /
do not doubt that something may be learn
ed from a very poor book. If Shut up to
it on long voyage, as [ have been, a
book otherwise worthless, will afford you
not only amusement but instruction. Out
of all the mass of trash of which l have
spoken, something useful may be gather
ed, as the bee extracts sweets out of most
noxious substances and purifying bodies.
i But as you can in ordinary life read but
little, at most a few hundred volumes out
of all the thousands and millions printed,
| would not advise you to waste much time
on Indifferent literary productions.
/ Make note Of what you read. | do not
say spend much time in writing out the
contents Of your books. But keep them
in mind while you are reading, that you
may digest the whole mass of it together
when you have done with the book. Read
then with pen, or pencil, in hand.
! But do not expect to remember all you
read. This is not the object of reading,
any more than the object of eating is to
keep forever in the stomach what we put
; into the mouth and swallow as food. I'm
derstand, then, that reading is taking
| food; and meditation, noting down the
, points in it, reflection upon it, are diges
| tion. Digest what you read. Assilnilate
the good, that which you approve and love
: into your own mental structure and cast