Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1876-01-06
HEADING,
interesting Lecture by Rev. Dr.. Barnas
Sears.


Notwithstanding the bitter cold ii
Tuesday night, all excellent audience
including our most prominent citize us
assembled in the lecture room of the
Methodist church TO heaf lecture OF
Reading by DR.. Barnas Sears before
the Young Mems Christian Association
The expectations of the audience, from
the exalted position of the lecturer in
the world of letters, were high, and
were not disappointed, We give below
a sketch of the lecture, greatly regret'
ting the necessity, imposed by limited
space, of having to omit so muchs
DR.. Sears commenced by abiding to
the unfortunate position of the man
who does not read, limited as he is to
his own experience and to what he
hears from the lips of others, and de-
prived of the benefits of civilizati on,
which is the result of the gathered ex-
preston of the world, recorded and
transmitted. How low is his intellect
and how dark is his soul! He knows
nothing of the splendor which once
glittered in the sun on the banks of the
Nile, the Euphrates. the Tiber, and the
bills and plains Of Greece and Asia
Minor the stirring scenes of the Mid-
die Ages, when all Europe was in arms
to recover the Holy Land, and when
nation dashed against nation as in the
wars of England, France, Germany and
Italy; or when the castles on the
Rhine and on the hill tops of France
and England were renowned for
chivalrous feats-all this is as blank to
ignorant men as the Universe is to a
blind man. Would that such men
knew how to estimate their loss as
other men do!
Reading leads to thinking; its effect
is to induce habits of reflection, to en-
large the sphere of the mind, and to
raise it above mere sensual grati6cas
tons. Reading makes full man =
it fills the vacuum that would other
wise exist, making ones vacant hours
interesting. A man with his books
can say, Il am never less alone than
when alone" 1t relieves the home
circle from the tedious monotony and
vacancy which characterizes families
that live together and merely vegetate,
varying their daily routine of life only
by labor, eating, drinking and sleeping
If the wife complains that her hus-
band passes his time away from home
let her furnish her mind with a new
stock of ideas and have within herself
something fresh-a living fountain o.
thought and feeling to give zest to life
and the first love which has cooled te
lnanity and safety, will return, anG
home will recover its lost attractions
The youth of family will find theil
delight in home where thought burns
and intelligence sparkles; where re-
! finement and intellectual entertain.
ment interest their feelings and keel
alive their sympathies.
Society derives nearly all lts unspe ak.
able value from enter tanning, varied
and instructive conversation, and moth.
ing contributes more to this than
knowledge of books. Intelligence
makes conversation one of the brghtes,
and most rational sources of enjoyment
A man would go many miles to lister
to the conversation of Coleridge, Mack.
intosh, Macau'ayl or Sidney Smith,
Who does not remember what Boswell
says of those ambrosial nights in, which
johnson was the centre of the literary
circle. Such, too, were the saloons O
those queens Of French society
Mesdames, Ramboulliet Lafayette
Sevigue, DeStaele, Roland, and Re
camier, where the wisdom and wit o
Paris was assembled. That club O
authors that meets regularly in Boston
-Longfellow, Holmes, Emerson, Fields
Hedges, and others furnishes in it.
brilliant conversations a literary trea
rarely to be found elsewhere. VIII,
not kindle little of this literary fire il
Stanton Why not redeem ourselves
from the bondage Of gossip, and talk 0
the weather and such like small talk.
know it is better TO talk about thes,
things than to say nothing, and it MAJ
be well in conversation to start th,
game by such mean, that spice of i
is always in place. IT is the small
change Of society in fashionable 10,
ciety. I know, well, Too, That eratsfl