The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-11-19

More beautiful than any other adorn-
ments are the costly books ofa princeiy
library; but let not the man OF small
library stand looking into the garuished
alcoves wishing for those unused volumes.
The workman who dimes on roast beef and
new Irish potatoes will be healthier and
stronger than he who begins with "mock-
TURTLE" and goes up through the long
lane of luxuriant table till he comes
to almond nuts. put the man of one
hundred books mastered against the man
of one thousand books OF which he has
only samatteripg. On lecturipg routes.
| have sometimes been turned into costly
private libraries to spend the day and
l revelled in the indexes, and scrutiniz-
ed the lids, set them back in as straight a
row as when found them, yet learned
little. But on my way home, in the cars,
took out of my satchel book that cost
me only one dollar and half, and after.
wards found that it had changed the
course Of my life, aud helped decide my
eternal destiny.
We get many letters from clergymen
asking advice about reading, and dvplor-
ing their lack of books. warrant they
all have books enough to shake earth and
heaven with, if the books were rightly
used. A man who owns Bible has, to
begin with, a library as long as from
here to heven. The dulest preachers l
know of have splendid libraries. They
own everything that has ever been writ
ten on miracle, and yet when you hear
them preach, if you did not get sound
asleep, that would be miracle. They
have all that Calvin and other learned
men wrote about election, and while you
feel that you have been elected to be
bored. They have months and years
turning over the heavy tones on the
divine attributes, trying to understand
God, while some plain Christian, with
New Testament in his hand, goes into tho
next alley, and sees in the face Of an in>
valid woman that paace ard light and
comfort and JOY which teach him in one
hour what God is. There are two kinds
of dulness-learned dulness and ignorant
dulness. We think the latter preferable,
for it is apt to be more spicy. You can
not measure the length Of a mans brain,
nor the width Of his heart,no the extent
Of his usefulness, by the size of his lib
rary.
Life is so short you cannt know every
thing. There are but few things we
need to know, but let us know them well.
People who know everything, do nothing,
You cannot read all that comes out. Ev-
cry book read without digestion is so
much dyspepsia. Sixteen arple-iump-
lings are not healthy. 10 our age, when
hundreds Of books are launched every
day from the press, do not be ashamed TO
cour-- Ignorance of the majority Of tho
volumes printed. IF you have no artis-
tic appreciation, spend neither your del
lars nor your time on John Ruskin.
Do not say that you are fond ofShaks.
peare it you are not interested in him,
and after years study would not know
Romeo from John Falstaff. There is an
amazing amount of lying about Shaks-
peare. Use to the utmost what books you
have, aud do not waste your time in long.
ing after great library. You wish you
could live in the city and have access to
some great collection Of books. BE not
deceived. The book Of the library which
you want will be out the day you want
it. l longed to live in town that might
be in proximity to great libraries. Have
lived ip town thirteen years, and never
found in the public library the book l
asked for but once, and getting that home
I discovered it was not the one wanted,
Besides, it is the book you oacn that most
profits, not that one which you take from
the "Athenaum" for few days. Ex-
cepting in rare cases, you might as well
send to the ioundlipg hospital and borrow
a baby as to borrow book with the idea
of its being any great satisfaction. We
like baby in our cradle, but prefer that
one which belongs to the household. We
like book, but want to feel that it is
ours. We never yet got any advantages
from borrowed book. We hope those
never rcaped any profit from the books
they borrowed from us but never return.
ed. We must have the right to turn
down the leaf, and underscore the favor.
ite passage. and write an observation in
the margin in such poor chirography that
no one else can read it, and we ourselves
are sometimes confounded.
All success to great Libraries, and skill.
full book. .bindery, and exquisite typo
graphy, and fue.tipted plate paper, and
bevellsd boards, and gilt edges, and Turk.
ish morocco but we are determined that
troscoed alcoves shall not lord it over
common shelves, and Russia binding
shall not overrule sheep.skiu, and that
"full calf" shall not look down on paste.
board, We war not against great libra
ries. We only plead Tor the better use
OF small ones.