The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-04-21
The Duty of Owning Books.
By HENRY WARD BEEcHER.

By HENRY WARD BEEcHER.
We form judgments OF men from little
things about their house, OF which the own.
er perhaps never thinks. In earlier years,
when travelling in the West, where taverns
were scarce, and in some places unknown,
and every settlers house was house Of zen.
tertainment," it was a matter of some i'm
portance and some experience to select
wisely where you would put up. And we
always looked for flowers. II there were
no trees for shade, no patch OF flowers in the
yard, we were suspicious Of the place. But,
no matter how rude the cabin or rough the
surroundings, if we saw that the window had
little trough for flowers, and that some
vines twined about strings let down from the
caves, we were confident that there was
some taste and carefulness in the log cabin.
In new country, where people have to tug
for living, no one will take the trouble to
rear flowers unless the love of them is pret.
ty strong-and this taste blossoming out of
q plain and uncultvated people is, in itself,
like clump of hare. bells growing out Of
the seams of rock. We were seldom mis-
led. A patch of flowers came to signify
kind people, clean beds and good bread.
But other signs are more significant in
other states of society. Flowers abou!
rich mans house might signify only that he
has q good gardener, or that he has refined
neighbors, and does what he sees them do.
But men are not accustomed to buy books
unless they want them. II, on visiting the
dwelling OF a man of slender means, find
the reason why he has cheap carpets and
very plain furniture to be that he may pur.
, chase books, he rises al once in my esteem.
, Books ure not made for furniture, but there
! is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes
house. The plainqst row OF books that
J cloth or paper ever covered is more signf.
, cant of refinement than the most elaborate
: etagere or side board.
: Give me house furnished with books
rather than furniture Both, if you can, but
/ books at any rate To spend several days
in friends house, and hunger for some
f thing to read, while you are treudng on
costly carpets, dnd sitting upon luxurious
chairs, and sleeping on down, is as if one
were bribing your body for the sake OF cheat
ing your mind. l. it not pitiable to see
man growing rich, and beginning to aug
ment the comforts Of home, and luvshng
money on ostentatious upholstery, upon the
, table, upon everything but what the soul
, needs!
We know Of many and many rich mans
house where it would not be safe to ask fol
the commonest English classics. A few
glarish ANNALS on the table, few pictorial
mcnslrosities, together with the stock of re.
lgious books OF his "persuasion," and tha,
is all No range Of poets, no essayis's, no
selection OF historians, no travels or biogra.
phies-no select fclions or curious legend
ary lore ; but then, the walls have paper on
which cost three dollars roll, and The floors
have carpets that cost four dollars yard
: Books are the windows through which the
soul looks out A house without books i:
like room without windows, No man ha:
: q right to bring up his children without sur
rounding them with books, if he has the
! means to bNy them Children learn tc
read by being in the presence OF books
The love of knowledge comes with reading
and grows upon it. And the love OF knowl
edge in young mind is almost warrant
against the inferior excitement of passions
;, and vices.
Let US pity those poor rich men who live
=. barrenly in great bookless houses 4! Let US
congratulate the poor, that in our doy books
. are so cheap that man may every year ado
hundred volumes to his library for the
price of what his tobacco and his beer woult
, cost him. Among the earliest ambitions tt
b be excited in clerks, workmen, journeymen
and indeed among all that are struggling W
= in life from nothing to something, is that
@ owning, and adding to, good library o
y books. A little library, growing larger eV
:. cry year, is an honorable part of young
!. mans history. 1t is mans duty to have
. books. A library is not luxury, but one
of the necessaries of life.