The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1862-10-23


trade, in which one must serve as blum.
dering apprentice before he can be so
much as initiated into the iptricacies of
the art.
1t saqueer spectacle, yet one of very
common occurrence, that OF great read
ers who are noted for their ignorance Of
almost every subject that they have ever
read about. There are silly people
who suppose that the chief thing neccs-
sary to Gil a man with knowledge is to
pour it in by the gallon; and so it would
be perhaps, if every man were q cement
cd cistern, or a well.hOoped cask; but
unfortunately most men are riddles and !
in respect to memory are largely |
made mp of leakage. Some practical
device therefore, of prisoning fugitive
ideas, facts, suggestions, analogies, IL
lustrations, etc., etc., is an indispensable
requisite to any use of book which
shall not leave man when he lays it
down nearly as fill of emptiness as he
was when he first cut the leaves thereof
Here is a morsel of admonition from
one of the letters of Benjamin Franklin
pertinent to our point, and which By the
way l imprisoned in my common place
book some years since: II would advise
you to read with pen in your hand,
and enter in little book short hints of
what you find that is curious or may be
useful"
Make no doubt, my kind reader, that
the wonderful man, whose wonderful
words you have just read, practic ed his
orthodoxy on this subject, if no other.
And to "that pen in hand" and that
"little book" at his elbow, no question he
owed many of his marvellous attain.
ments in knowledge aud wisdom.
am informed that about FIVE thou
sand ministers are subscribers to the In,
dependent. Is there one of these FIVE
thousand that has not often found his
intellectual bill of fare to consist, as in
ancient days, of "fve loaves aud few
{ small fshes2" No men on the globe
fret and chafe with conscious ignorance
, as do ministers; for the reason that they
are almoners of knowledge to so many
. famishing. My brother, Rev. Mr.
Anonymous, didn't you go into your
u study last Tuesday morning with tar
dy gait as to an irksome task, very muct
as if you were an Israelite under an
: = Egyptian driver, essaying to make brick,
u without straw
. You have given out beforehand you
subject, and the people were on tiptoC
9 with expectation. You sat down at the
u writing desk with blank mind and
blank sheet of sermon-paper bowin.
salutations to each other. You rum.
magcd over the library shelves, through
1t dusty tones of theology and history aud
bellies lettres and metaphysics to find al
idea. You explored the Encyclopedias
and the Quarterlies in vain. Again
you sat down at your desk, dipped your
pen in the inkstand and wrote your text
"a kingdom for an idea," you exclaim
mentally; but ideas are not at the beck
= of bribes, and ministers are not com
i monty possessors Of kingdoms. 1t wa
an aggravating posture of affairs bu
); the Fates would have it so; and at the
5 last tap Of the bell on Sunday mornin;
J. you had toiled through sermon whicl
at best was, as old Fuller says, "hO
e from the spit, raw and half roasted" -
q Now, my clerical brother, l am acquaint
IL ed with a minister in the next parish
s who is not half as smart man as yo
are, and yet who will distance you ful
q league in sermon making. He is a ma
0 Of medium mental stature, but of mar
velous avarice of ideas, aud quick inge
nuity 10 devising means to cage thes
is vagrants up. Ho has been in the habi
e of jotting down the valuable content.
! Of books, and putting away the preciou
d morsels for future use, and this habi
Q has been Of years standing, and to day
}. with very moderate sized library, hi
II is accounted the most erudite man il
!. the association, aud is repute to be