Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-12-15

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culture, books take the place of teachers.
The force of personal presence is no
longer necessary to hold us to a diligent
use of our time Each man becomes a
law unto himself, and enfOrces the de-
cisiOns Of his own judgment. The path
is no longer cleared before us; whatever
progress we make will be due to our own
exertions; and yet, these exertions are
guided bv the experience of others
The experience Of one becomes the COM
mon property Of all, and each individual
born heir to the wisdom Of the nineteenth
century, has an Inheritance greater than
the laboriously accumulated fortune of
the wealthiest souls that lived in the in
fancy of the race. Human life is too short
for any man to begin at the beginning,
even if he desired to undertake so useless
task We must take what others have
given to US as our intellectual capital, or
We cannot do successful business in
competition with those who start with
this advantage.
This intellectual bequest comes into
our possession by reading. We no lon
ger work out the old problems, over
which humanity has toiled for centuries,
but grasp at once the conclusion, deter
mined by few well settled principles
1t is the work of a few moments to run
over the reasoning, but to pioneer that
thought through the trackless wilderness
Of original discovery would have been a
task too herculean for our strength
The immediate objects of reading are
two: Information and recrcatiOn; that is,
to place one in sympathy with the
thought and feeling of the world
Thought and feeling form unit-the
one representing the result reached by
labor, and the other the pleasure expert
cnccd in rest when we contemplate our
achievements. The general course of
ones reading will be determined by the
end he has in view. The labor of one is
physical, and his recreation physical rest.
In his leisure moments he reads for in
formation, relieving the tolls Of the body
by the exercise of his unwearied mind
The labor Of another is intellectual, and
such a course Of reading would only add
to his WEAKNESS. He turns from the Sc
we're exercise Of intellect to the lighter
play of fancy and feeling; lie reads for
recreation. Unless these different ends
to be reached be held clearly before the
mind, no one can select his course intel
ligently or follow it profitably. One to
whom mental WEAKNESS is an utter in
comprebcnsibility, passes sweeping
condemnation upon all light reading
because he does not admit recreation to
hn ~ 1ar inn Tn au1 IF HoOAtnn Nnunn
people arc apt to find solid reading dis.
tasteful, because they do not feel the i'm
portancc of making information leading
end in the selection Of course of
reading.
Reading for information will naturally
fall into four courses: LIST, History-what
has been: End, BiOgraphy-whO has been;
Sd, Scicncc-what has been determined;
4th, Social and Political Science-ques-
tions demanding determination. To be
ignorant Of History is to throw away all
past events, and the advantages of all
past experience. Human nature is the
same at all times and in all countries
Biography is personal history. Great
events are due to great men, and we can
not understand the one without a knOwl-
edge Of the other. Science gives us a
balance sheet of human knowledge So
cial science presents us the problems
which society is still working out. To
be ignorant Of these great questions Is
amply to be out Of the current of human
sympathy, and to shut up the educated
men i'm the cloister of the middle ages.
Neeer read scAat does not interest you.
No matter how good the book, how i'm
portant the subject, how valuable the
matter, if you cannot be interested in 1t,
throw it down. Interest is the test Of
intellectual action.
A student who takes no interest in his
books, never learns because his mind OBJ
stinately refuses to appropriate the ideas
of the lesson He may memorize the
words, but as soon rs the recitation is
over, even these are forgotten. Every
teacher knows that this method Of study
pursuedfor any length Of time will ruin
student; and precisely tho same result
win follow careless and desultory reading,
no matter how well matured the mind
may be.
The only protect IN against these evils
is to read nothing carelessly. A careless,
slipshod way Of reading anything, even
that which is Of the least Importance,
will soon extend its influence to matters
Of greater moment. until It becomes u
confirmed mental habit. A man who is
dishonest in little matters is on the direct
road to dishonesty in greater. "What is
worth doing at all is worth doing we'll"
The man of power in the world is the
man Of strong convictions A true
skeptic that is, a man without convic
tons on any subjects man Of n" ag-
gressivc power, but whose whole force is
expended in preventing progress. No
habit is stationary; it either advances or
recedes No habits need closer watching
than those which foster careless thinking
and intellectual laxincss. If We study to
any purpose, the mind must be alert
and active, and any relapse into inattcn-
tion betrays itself in that that no thought
is presented to the mind, This thor
oughncss ia hest secured by having
stated times for reading. He will make
the most Of his time who has 1t accurate
" mapped out, and who abuses the least
deviation from his prescribed plan.
A school in which there were no rcgu-
lar hours for recreation would be fall
ure; so the results reached by our mental
faculties when working disordcrly, are
comparatively mcager. Every teacher
has learned by experience how quickly
irregular hours will demoralixe student.
He may look for the same result in him
self if he does not maintain habits of the
strictcst regularity in his intellectual re-
creations rs well as in his mental labor
Every intelligent act Of a rational being
forms to certain degree his character,
and no act, therefore, Is without sienifi-
canoe or without Its influence.