Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-12-12
The Value of Books.

In one of the recent lectures before
the Yale College students, the Rev. X.
w. Dale, of Birmingham, enforced
strongly the value of hooks, and the ad-
vantages to be derived from their con-
stant perusal. There is, he said, a
wonderful charm in reading a book.
every line of which is familiar TO you
1t is like talking over school days and
college days with an old friend. You
have heard him tell every one of his
tales dozen times; you know as soon
as he begins q story how it will end !;
you anticipate his look when he comes
to his comic passage, and the tone in
which he will tell them, and the precise
point at which he will explode in ire
pressible laughter; but the old stories
from the old friend have greater charm
than the fresh wit of a stranger. Or it
is like walking along the roads of a
pleasant country, in which for many
years we have spent our holiday. We
know the trees and the brooks and the
bridges. We look for the picture sque
cottages which we shall have to pass.
We are prepared for the view of the
distant mountains or the shining sea,
which is caught at particular turn in
the road. In seeing the old objects, one
after another, when we have been away
from them for few months, there is a
kind of pathetic surprise, which touches
us far more deeply than the surprise of
novelty.
What books you will choose as your
intimate friends will depend upon your
humor and taste. DIR. GHthrie's choice
seemed TO me charming. He told me
that he read through four books every
year-the Bible, "The Pilgrims Pro-
gress," four of Sir Walters Scott's
novels, which he reckoned as one book.
and fourth book, which l have for
gotten, but l think it was Robinson
Crusoe," You will choose some books
because they soothe and quiet you;
some books because they are invigorat-
ing as mountain air; some because they
amuse you by the shrewdness of their
humor; some because they give wings
TO your fancy; some because they kindle
your Imagination.
But there are books of another kind,
which have graver claims. Every great
and original writer has his character
istic intellectual method. He mas his
own way of approaching every question
hot ha AiaancsnS. his Of
position /; his own way of analyzing and
destroying the arguments which are
alleged in support of a position which
he rejects; and his own way of develop
ing the proof of a position which he
maintains. If you read him carefully,
you will also discover that there are
certain settled principles of Judgment
which are explicitly or implicitly re-
cognized in all his intellectual decisions.
These correspond to those great consti-
tutional principles and those authorita-
tive legal maxims which are current in
the law courts and which govern an
infinite variety of eases. 1t is another
quality of a writer of original and crea-
tive genius that he is never satisfied
with dead thought. Whether his ideas
are true or false, they have such vital
force in them that they are capable of
indefinite growth and are the roots of
whole systems of speculations. Close
familiarity with few great books will
do more than anything else to enrich
and discipline your mind.