Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1861-02-07
DO You Own Any Bookss

If, on visiting the dwelling Of q man OF .len.
der means, find the why he has cheap
carpets and very plain furniture 10 be that he
may purchase books. he rises at once In nv e.
TEEN. Books are not made for furniture, but
there s nothing else shat SO beautifully furnishes
house. The plancst row of books that cloth
or paper ever covered is more significant Of re-
snemcnt than the most deliberately cary cd sfeg,rs
or sideboard.
Give me house furnished with books rather
than furniture. Doth. If you can, but books at
any rate. To spend several days at a friends
house. and hunger for something to read. while
you are treading on costly carpets. ani sitting
upon luxurious chairs, and sleeping upon down.
is as If one were bribing your body for the sake
Of cheating your mind.
Ia il not pitable 20 see a man growing rich.
and beginning to augment the comforts Of home.
and lavshing money on ostentatious UPHOLSTERY.
upon the table. upon every thing but what ,ha
soul needs
We know of many and many q rich mans
house where il would not be safe to ask for tho
commonest English classics. A few gasish an.
nuals on the table. few pictorial monstrositie,,
together with the stock CT religious books Of his
'pursaasion. and that i all, No range Of poets.
10 essayists, no selection ofhistorsns no trayes
or biographies. no select actions or curious lc
gendary lore: but then the walls have paper
which cost three dollars a roll. and the aoor.
have carpets that cost four dollars yard. Books
are the windows through which the soul looks
out. house without books is like room with
out windows. No man has a right 70 bring u,
his children without surrounding them with
books, If he has the means to buy them. It
wrong to his family. He cheats them. Chi'.
dren learn to read by being in the presence of
books. The love of knowledge comes with read
ing, and grows upon il. And the love Of know
edge, in young mind, is almost a warrant
against the inferior excitement of passions arG
vices.
Let US pity these poor rich men Who live bar
renly in great, bookless houses. Let us con
gratulate the poor that in our day books are so
cheap that man may add every year hundred
volumes TO his library for the price of what his
tobacco and his beer would cost, Among the
earlies; ambitions to be excited in clerks, work
men, journeymen, and, indeed, sHcng all tha,
are struggling up in life from nothing to come
thing. is that Of owning and constantly adding to
a library Of good books. A Little library, grow
inr larger every year, is an honorable part Of :
Young mans history. II ia a mans dat; ,o base
books. A library is net a laxury, but one Of the
necessarie, ofiife-
A good book IS thing as sr?aFate fai dis
tinct from all other creations. as bid is from
flower, or jewel fFosa stone Books are at
once our masters aad our servants They have
a silent Independence. an unchanging voice. a
calm declaration IF truth, as they viii. bG; they
are urobtrpsve. TheT wait for our moods ana
4 our leisure. They never jealous If We neg
lect them, nor qusrrelsome when VIC are familiar
They gait upon us in youth, in manhood, snd in
old age. With yiyacity that time neve. chrls.
and instruciiveness that repetition never t.
ries. Men gsow old. and children sse the oniv
Frprinss allowed. The same volume Is never re
product. But books come again, in successive
editions, with the same life, the same disposi-
tion, thesame Offices Of love aud goodness. Their
jeints never stifen- Their heads never grow
gray. All hinges but book Hinges ., times srs,s