The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-07-04
READING.

Reading is one ofrhe greatest consola'
tons of life ; it is the nurse OF virtue !.
the upholder in adversely the prop of
Independence the support of a Just
pride the strengthener Of felevated opin'
ions it is the shield against the tyranny
of ali the petty passions tits the repeller
ofthe fools scoff and the knave's poison
What shall you read Read whatever
good book you like to read, Reading, is,
in one respect like eating it does not do
YOU much good unless you have relish
for it. The realm acknowledge is so vast,
that the most learned man is Obliged to
leave some of its paths untrodden and
some of its great provinces unvisited'
What do you 7Vantto know Respecting
what subject of inquiry, has your curlos'
itv been awakened Read about that.
What shall you read Read what will
enable you to aVOrk successfully. Under
stand your own trade or profession to the
bottom, Know the science oft, the his
tory oft, and all the hidden secrets of it,
which books reveal, Ifyou are farmer,
despise not knowledge which books con.
tain respecting your noble and beautiful
calling. If you are man ofleisure, the
most dangerous of Heavens gifts, read.
think necessarily till you have learned
what to do with it, for you must make 1t
tell on the good of community, or it will
curse your children to the third genera
ton.
What shall you read Read that
which will help you VOtS intelligently.
Read the history of your country, up and
down, and crosswise. Read all about it;
its colonial history; its revolutionary his.
tory ; its political history. Read it, till
YOU understand, clearly, how the Unit
ed States, of the year 1873, came to find
it. Read one good general newspaper,
for the newspaper is the link which
connects each individual with the great
life of mankind, The man who reads
no newspaper is man cut off from his
species.
What shall you read Read beauti-
full things. Read the high. the sweet,
the eloquent words of inspired and gifts
ed men and women; poets, orators, pro.
phets, sages the noble and the good of
all ages and all climes. But above all,
read the Sacred volume. Oh yes /;
read the Sacred volume. Read some~
thing for the soul every day you live.
If you starve your body, stunt not the
mind for lack of nourishment.
Imprint the beauties of authors upon
your imagination, and their morals upon
your heart. With many readers, brillianH
cy Of style passes for affluence of
thought, they mistake buttercups in the
grass for immeasurable gold mines un'
der the ground.
Reading without purpose is saunter>
ing, not exercise. More is got from one
book on which the thought settles for a
definite end in knowledge, than from
libraries skinned over by wandering
eve. A cottage flower gives honey to
the bee, a kings garden none to the
butterfly. Youths who are destined for
active careers, or ambitious of distinc-
ton in such forms of literature as re-
quire freshness of invention or original
ity of thought should avoid the habit of
intense study for many hours at a
stretch. There is a point in all
tension of the intellect beyond which ef.
fort is only waste of strength. Fresh ideas
do not readily spring up within a weary
brain; and whatever exhausts the mind
not only enfeebles its power, but mar
rows its scope. There are often over
read men at college, who enter upon life
languidly, as if they were about to leave
it. They have not the vigor to cope
with their own generation, for their own
generation is young, and they lack the
nervous energy which supplies the sin
ews of war to youth, its contests for for
tune and fame. Study with regularity,
at settled hours. The man who has ac-
quired the habit of study, though only
for one hour day in the year. and ad>
heres to the one thing till it is mastered.
will be startled to see the progress made
at the end Of year. He is seldom over
worked who can continue to be in adj
vance of his work. If you have three
weeks before you to learn something a
man Of average quickness could learn
in a week, do it the first week and not
the third. Business dispatched is busi>
ness well done, but business hurried IS
business ill done, In learning what
others have thought, it is well to keep in
practice the power to think for ones self.