Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-02-16

| palu 10 4NOdu w 0D5Ier, tn6 dutuoA "a VI
old Spelling Book" and great as was tn
name of defender of the Constitution. i
was question of doubt whether he in
spired that reverential awe that the worlt
paid to that remarkable Websterian face
on the old spelling book of former gen
Grafton. Illustrations of moral applica
ton were drawn from this first source O
the school boys inspiration. The book
of instruction and implements used at
} former day, were wildly contrasted with
the improved ones of modern days.
j Such reflections and such comparisons
are fitted to teach those "whose lines have
fallen in pleasant places" the true value
and greater blessedness of books-so null.
tiplied in our day by the metallic tongue;
OF Observation-Disclosures the present
and reaching back through all ages, which
otherwise would have been to us "te7Td
snc0gnSta," making US glad by their clio,
quence and hopeful for their promise, for
"Who of us can tell
| What he had been had Cadmus never taught
| To man the magic that embalm'the thought,
| Had Plato never spoken from his CELL
| Or his high harp Homer never strung z"
"KindHer all earth hath grown since Shakes
peare sung"
Few while perusing the pages of a
pleasant book pause to think how many
skillful hands have been busy in its fab
rioation, or how many hours or months,
perhaps years Of study and toll have been
devoted by its author to its mental pre-
paration, or how worthy of note its mere
machinery. The production of the paper,
the work of the compositor, its binders
labor, and all until it is finished were
sketched as the complex creation of head
and hand, and is the method by which
the pearls and gems of thought are trans
mitted into literary currency, and thus
they become the common property of
mankind, having bodily form and an in
tellectual life that dissipates darkness and
ignorance and diffuses mellow light by
its luminous lines.
The passion for founding collections of
books is no new impulse of our nature.
1t has existed in all ages, and it long re-
quired royal munificence to found ma
tional library. 1t is only since the days
of Gutten burgh, Faust and Schaffer,
when the art of multiplying these pro-
auctions was discovered, that men in the
common walks of life have been enabled
to rival this imperial honor. The public
libraries of ancient and modern times,
from the Alexandrian, were then happily
sketched. In passing, the speaker said,
sis it not significant that in the birthplace
of libraries we can now record, at the end
of twenty centuries, the completion of an
enterprise worthy her vast ibrary-an
enterprise which has turned the great
continent of Africa into an island-the
Suez canal?" The happy influences and
the great impulses to commerce and the
world was prophetic that the East would
be in the the last days, as it was in the
first, the predestined center of the world.
The establishment of the first private
library by the Chancellor of England,
Bishop of Durham, in 1871, the grest
value, high price paid, and the sacrifices
made to procure the writings of the ear
Hest authors, were presented with pleas.
ing Incidents and descriptions of individ-
ual effort to procure and preserve them.
The history of the American newspaper
press was detailed from the Boston News |
Letter in 1904 to the present period, with |
n description of its struggles and triumphs, |
giving amusing accounts of early adver- |
tisements, the methods of collecting news
compared with the present and quicker
modes, and the progress made in the |
of the country since the intro
ductien of the magnetic telegraph. Con-
Guiding with q vision of the future as
follows:
"But the question arises in all serious
ness, and who is so self-confdent to
answer it. Whether we have discovered |
the quickest of communication What |
will it be 1900? Although the time cam
not be much shortened, may it not by the
alchemy of thought aided by science,
laid down in books found upon shelves of
libraries, such as that under whose ia
spices we meet to-night-may it not be
80 that the transmission of intelligence
shall be cheaper and more frequent, and
that our children shall be brought into as
communication with every part
Of the known world, as readily as one city
now corresponds with another ~
What then shall be the newspaper of
the future? ?" Instead of it's being pub
ished daily, we can reckon with certainty
On our MONDAY meals with its desert
heightened with more enjoyable relish
BY its MONDAY paper, and at night the
cares of the day buried in the past, there
shall come with our toast and tea at the
vesper meal an additional crispness with
our evening paper"
Living in a marked, utilitarisn, prac-
ical age, conservatism seems to have lost
is meaning among the antagonistic,
jashing elements now at work in our
NDtry. On the one side the develop
: < by headlong zeal and extravaganza,
en,. >ther by results flowing from scion
the I ~eb, inventions, conservatism is
lc reseal \jngs that were, or Is at the
long the IL i've. The past vanishes as
ost, only rela' sence of the steam en-
scroll IN the pre-: no Sabbath bell, mag
me- the chime 9t OF I. "a, Gees have supplant
hcent ana costly eui' Ne wigwam. A
the war hoop anu i >tablished, and
ere eminates from every pc. % . listed 1p I
trade. where a century sin. 80 For f
,lv an exchange of beads and tt. '0 %. io ~ |
dian corn, and the simple measul the 6
Fe. Every step and every new day 20 {
ul of man CLOVIS with more lntent |
"a and a fresher and more vigorous i'm
llse-for who is so poor in Impulse as =,
ot to have felt that our books and news :,
apers are leading US to enter on ne" :,
"a in history. The condition OF life. our 8
usiness whatever it be, II success1ul Is .
,ork-much of it unpleasant-lrksome =
York. but alter %Ork COLbSs IocA r
nd then comes relaxation. Brightly !;
hines out from our work-day garb, our
,hools, our social life, created. nurtured !
nd spiritualized by libraries OF books, 80
1at the rough discordant winds only =
aiken in us the deeper, richer melodies =,
{ our nature by feeding, and rouses us
, higher and more unremitted activities.
The Bible-the history-the book OF
ravels is found in our libraries, but not
ften enough found in our hands or upon
ur tables. We have too few thoroughly
igested views of every day occurrences
nd simple facts. Look at your libraries
. YOUR taste cultivating it for reading,i
herish the habit as your household
earth. Books are our household goods.
,hey are the only Gods in all the mytho-
ogies that are ever beautiful, ever IN
hanging. If they become Idols, IL Is
ind of worship which needs no mission
nv fund to expunge-no Bible to abolish
for the Bible itself crowns the peak OF