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


oi c.,coucqg eplen+, or of warning, or Qti
e1Aort&.e.4 Or awakening. And thehesi
ii IL - ccrd to revert from time 70 time,
90 aasse already said, to first principles,
The "timeg' too, as previously remarkeq'
favor the pursuit oflctters, reaqing,Study
and rejection. There are varied adyaf'-'
tages attending the objects OF your Libra
~ Association l have III passing not
iced not few of these. 1t Is we'll to.
take a fuller survey of them. "t,eadFs,
SAWS Bacon, | think it Is, "maSes 1HIl
man. aynlerSation makes ready man,
and .,anking makes correct man :" II
| l,istake not the social Library scheme
rontemp!ates all these things. Our
school studies, and our professional stud
ics. we all knpw who have reached mid
de life, are but preparatory net the end
but the beginning. Up to this time how
few Of us have read much. How few Of
Won have read al the books on your
shelves ana iawaraly digested them.-
How few have read half Of them. How
many have not read one IN five Of them;
how many not onc in ten? The cares Of
business, labor, and necessary occupation
how much OF our time they absorb =
How many Of Us can read 4 volume a
week. or even in month some im~s,
owing to the outside influences and pre- :
u.a or the tines Dove not need to look
at the advantages Of reading, and to re
ne. orr zeal In the objects OF this Asso-
citation? ADi now everything fayors
this one, more. but 'art Is long and
fimc is aca.ue." We have a great deal
to do aud but little space left il which to
accomplish il. Let US see now:
I.ook at the History and Literature Of
your own country, my friends Would it
not b. an advantage to each one Of Us to
peru.c ii more? Hoy many Of Us are
to-day familiar with the writings, do not
say the life, but the writings of Wash
ington, Franklin, Jefferson, the two Ad,
aG4sss, Jay and Hamilton, Madison, Web
ster, CALHOUN, Clay and many others |
might name? Then would it not De an
advantage to each one Of us to read them
And then how much besides these has
been written. ! should like TO read a
vast range Of American Literature: Got
ton Mathcr aud Bellamy, Bclknap and
Dwight, and Edwards father and son ir-
wing aud Cooper; IIavthorneaud Longfcl-
low; Bancroft aud Prescott and Morley, the
BeccLers and Bayard Taylor,-with th(
writings of host more-what America
docs not need the advantagcof hayi.u reat
the works of these and others 81 his couu
trymen? And | leave q ut here, purpose
~, host Of "Small fGry.p
Then, look abroad to our fathcr-land
Are not Uhaucer and Spencer; Be-
johnson and Shakespeare, Bacon anc
NeYtop, and Milton aud Addison, an'
Cowper, apd Hume and Gibbon, and DR.
Johngon, and all the older worthless, a
much ours as theirs who live across tn
Atlantic? And are not Walter Scot
and Macaulay; Allison, Wordsworth am
IIemans, Southcy, Montgomery, Byron
Dickens and Thackeray and Tennyso
read as much on this side the water a
that? Do We not need to have the ad
vantage of reading these authors VIII
have made 50 glorious a use Of our moth
tongue? hoS well acquainted VT
the Literature of Great Britain Is any on
Of US?
/ might 90 on to speak Of other lar
guagcs or at least TRANSACTIONS from then
Who does not need to read something {
Lervautcs DON QuiXote de la ManchY
Al least. or of Cicero or Of Homer, Soc
rates and Plato? We need to kno,
something OF these out Of their ow
mouths for the way to know writer a
ter all is to 20 to his Writings aud heo
him spe4k, and not to 20 u Bi1graph
ical Dictiaqary, 1r aq Essayi8t, and hca
them speak about him.
Aud is there not now sd lace, de
comfort, friends, in thus communing wit
those who have gone before us Is ther
not something which lifts us up aboy,
the world when We read these WORTHLESS
something which allies us to the Divine
to God, while we do it? l think and be
lieye there is.
AND how much better is it TO hay
something to talk about out of the au
thors We have read, when We meet from
fine to time, rather than to hear the COS
sip and tattle of the neighborhood or t(
discuss the latest fashions, or iniaEl!c5
which have come to light; or to tal4 for
ever about the weather! No one Ike
these.
Would not reading, too, give us an ad
vantage in debate, aud in writing, as wei
as in conversation aud society! Aud i
not course OF Lectures during the week
ofwinter-I do not mean Lectures by Hor
ace Mann, or Horace Greeley, or Whippl
or Bishop Potter, or Everett, but such
course, as | see half score Of gentlemen
right about me here tonight, capable o
giying,--allOw the Suggestion-but wQql'
not such course of Lectures here thl
winter be both agreeable and profitable