Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-10-03
THE ANTI-sLAvERY BUGLE.
kUsKIN UPON LITERATURE.

FINALLY, your judgments will be, of course,
much affected by your taste in literature. Indeed,
| know many persons who have the pGrest taste in
literature, and yet false taste in art, and it is n
phenomenon which puzzles me not a little but
| have never known any one with false taste in
books, and true taste in pictures. 1t is also of the
greatest Importance to you, not only for arts sake,
but for all kinds of sake, in these days of book
ieluge, to keep out of the salt swamps of litera.
ture, and live on q little rock island OF your own.
with a spring and lake in it, pure and good. II
cannot, of course, suggest the choice of your Ii.
orary to you every several mind needs different
books but there are SUM books which We all
need, and assuredly, it you read Homer, Plato,
Eschylus, Herodotus, Dante, Shakespeare, and
Spencer, as much as you ought, you will not re-
ouire wide enlargement Of shelves to right and
left OF them for purposes OF perpetual study.
Among modern books, avoid generally magazine
and review literature. Sometimes it may contain
a useful abridgoment or a wholesale piece of criti-
cism hut the chances are ten to one it will either
waste your time or mislead you. If you want to
understand any subject whatever, read the best
book upon it you can hear OF not a review of the
book, If you don't like the first book you try,
seek for another but do not hope ever to under.
stand the subject without pains, by a reviewers
help. Avoid especially that class of literature
which has q knowing tone 1t is the mos, poison
Gus of all. Every good book, or piece of book, is
full of admiration and awe It may contain firm
assertion or stern satire, but it never sneers coldly,
| nOT hhNtGlS UluRbllN hiu ~ hiNh1o ltNub NOu "
reverence or love something with your whole heart.
1t is not always easy TO distinguish the satire of
the venomuus race of books from the satire of the
noble and pure ones but in general you may no.
tice that the cold,hlooded Crustacean and Batra.
clan books will sneer at sentiment and the warm
blooded, human books at sin. Then, in general,
the more you can restrain yt ur serious reading to
reflective or lyric poetry, history and natural his.
tory, avoiding fiction and the drama, the healthier
your mind will become. OF modern poetry keep
- Cx.a NNarl.,ua,th Ilnata HrnIIa n-,--
the two Brownings. Lowell, Longfellow and Cow
entry Patmore, whose Angel in the House. is the
most finished piece OF writing, and the sweetest
analysis we possess of quiet modern domestic feel
ing; while Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh" is,
as far as ! know, the greatest poem which the
century h IS produced in any language. Cast Cole
ridge at once aside, as sickly and useless; and
Shelley, as shallow and verbose ; Bryon, until
your taste is fully formed, and you are able to dis
Germ the magnitccnce in him from the wrong.
Never read bad OF common poetry, nor write any
poetry yourself there is perhaps, rather too much
than too little in the world already.
OF reflective prose, read chiefly Bacon, johnson
and Helps. Carly e is hardly to be named as 4
writer for "beginners," because his teaching,
though to some of us vitality necessary, NAV to
Others be hurtful. Ii you understand and like
him. read him, if he ofends you, you are not yet
ready for him. and perhaps may never be 50 at
all events, give him up, as you would sea-bathing
c if you found it hurt you, till you are stronger. OF
fiction read Sir Charles Grandson. SCOTS novels,
Miss Edgoworth's, and, if you are a young lady,
Madame de Genlis's, the French Miss Edgewortli
r making these, l mean, your constant companions
Of course you must, or will, read other books for
amusement, once or twice but you will find tina,
these have an elemen. Of perpetuity in them, ex.
listing in nothing else of their kind while their
peculiar quiotness and repose of manner will also
be of the grea, est value in teaching you to feel the
same characters in art. Read little at a time, try
ing to feel interest in little things, and reading moi
so much fol the sake of the story as TO get &C
quainted with the pleasant people into whuse COM
pany these writers bring you. n commu book
will often give you much amusement, but it is only
II noble book which will give YOU dear friends
u Remem0er also that it is of less importance to yol
in your earlier years, that the books you reaC
, should be clever, than that they should be right
" | do not mean oppressiveIy or repulsively instsuc
tive ; but that the thoughts they express should
t be just, and the feelings they excite generous. il
is not necess airy for you to read the wittiest or the
y hear what is already known, and may be simply
said. Much of the literature of the present day,
though good to be read by persons of ripe age, has
d a tendency to agitate rather than confirm, and
leave its reader too frequently in a helpless or
, hopeless ind gnatiOn, the worst possible state into
u which the mind of youth can be thrown. 1t may,
indeed, become necessary for you, as you advance
it in life, TO set your hand to things that need to be
altered in the world, or apply your heart chiefly tc
what must be pitied in it, or condemned but, for
" a young person, the safest temper is one of reyer
ence, and the safest place one of obscurity. Ger
taiuiy at present, and perhaps through all your
lr life, your teachers are wisest men if they make you
content in quie: virtue, and that literature ahd ar
are best for you which point out, in common life
and familiar things, the objects for hopeful labor
and for humble love.-Fom Elements Of Drautng
OF