Litchfield enquirer., 1860-02-09
For the Litchfeld Enquirer. COUNSELS TO YOUNG MEN.
NUMBER SIX.

You will recolect, young gentlemen. tha in my last, I briefly contrasted your advan tages with what even your fathers enjoyed by the multiplication and cheapness c books: But it is not enough that they ar brought within your reach. They must b read, or they will do you no good. The, are oracles to be devoutly consulted, not t be tricked out in gold lace, and set up fo a dumb show. They give no responses til they are questioned. You might place thou sapds of them in your library, and remail just as ignorant, as if they were so many gilt wooden blocks, nicely arranged in you alcoves. Settle it in your minds, my young frieuds, that if you would be any thing, yol must read. You must put yourselves unde the instruction of those great masters, wh. spent their lives in treasuring up wisdom anC knowledge for yonr benefit. It was for you and for all of us, that they trimmed the midnight lamp, and sounded the depths o science, and visited all climes. For you es pecialy, they collected, arranged, and em bodied the annals of nations, long since dead and buried. For you they drew the map o the heavens, surveyed the paths of the sea, and planted amaranthine flowers on the summits of Parnassus.
 Are any of you ready to say, "All this may be very well for young men of fortune and leisure :; but we have no time to read We wish we had, with all our hearts. No, my young friends, with this excuse npon your lipsyou don't wish you had. If you did, you would find time. The young apprentice, or clerk, or laborer in the field, or opera tive in the factory, who has such a thirst for knowledge that he will take up book, when he is waiting five minutes for his din- ner, will never complain that he has no time to read. He will redeem time enough in the course of year, from the most labor- ous avocations, to read many large volumes Where there is will, there is way, saith the provcrb. Who amoug yon is so confined to his business, winter and summer out of doors or in doors, as not to have one or two hours of leisure for mental improve ment, in every twenty-four? There is not young man among you all, who can't find, upon an average, at least one hour for read ing every day. Nine out of ten, if they set their hearts upon it, can find two or three hours on week days, besides all the leisure of fifty-two Sabbaths in a year.
 It is not those who have the least to do, in the industrial employments of life, that find the most leisure for the cultivation of their minds. Indeed, I have found from ex. perience, that considerable pressure is ne- ccssary, as it were, to create leisure. have found more spare time when every hour seemed to be pledged, than when had but little to do and believe this is common case. AS a general thing, men, who by system and forethought accomplish most in their business, find the most time to spare for social relaxation and mental culture But must not omit to remind you, that a great deal will depend upon hoao and achat you read. The greatest readers do not d. ways have the best furnished minds. There is such thing as reading many books with very little profit. As the body grows and is strengthened by the processes of diges- ton and assimilation, so it is by the mind To do you any good, what you reod must be digested, as well as what you eat. Some books require less thought, and of course, can be read with profit much faster than others. This is the case with History and Travels, and Popular Literature, compared with Mathematics, or Physical and Intellec- tual Philosophy. Many books must be studeds as well as read. Without this, turning sver their rich and tceming pages, will hs of very little use. The richest pearls aip found in deep water and he who would bring them up, must dive for them alid hold bis breath and if he does not succeed the first time, he must go down again and again. So it is in reading pro- found volume. If you would master the subject, you-must take time and take pains :; and there is hardly any book worth reading, which may not be advantageously closed for reflection. as you pass from one topic to an- other. If you make slower progress, you will gain more knowledge. l would advise you to read the more important parts of any good book more than once, and to keep blank book at hand, for making such notes and comments as may occur to you in the perusal. This will greatly assist your mem- ories, and train you to independent think ing.
 Let me next ask your attention to few suggestions upon the choice Of books. Of reading books, as of making them, there is no end. The life of Methusalah would not be long enough for the task, if you had noth- ing else to do. Leaving out as contraband, all the cargoes of novels and romances, and other seductive and Satanic publications oi the same general character, there are a great many more standard works in every depart ment of morals, science and literature, and vaster range of miscellaneous reading thar you can ever look into. You must make your selections of tens and twenties, out o hundreds and thousands. He must be ( rare Encyclopedia, who is competent to the task of keeping up with the publishers.
 Were competent to make out a cata lcgue of books most worthy of your choice have not room for it here. But I should begin by recommending history. First, tht history of your own country, which it is { shame for any young free-born American cit izen to grow up ignorant of. Then the his tory of England and Scotland, and afte, that, as good selection of Universal His tory, as your time and circumstances will al low. Next. instructive Voyages and Tray els, to make you acquainted with the con dition, character, and prospects of the sey eral branches of the great human family Then, would have you read somaspoetry such as Milton, Cowper, Young, Thomson Southey, Wordsworth, and others-seiec