Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1879-11-20
N ON READIN G.

Ihe evenings hOld many pOsslDlllles lof
improving the mind, especially for the
Time spent in study is never vast
ed, while many precious hours may be spent
in the streets or with frivolous companions,
which will yield no profit to braun or heart.
One of the first requisites to study is
pleasant room. There are mature minds
which can pick up knowledge anywhere,
but the undisciplined minds Of the young
need moderate facilities, or no progress will
be made. A large table, a good, clear light.
and quiet, will induce many a restless child
to bend over his book, and he will soon for
get, in the interest which it excites, the
companions who are eager for his presence
in other and less improving scenes.
1t is not possible for one person to map
out for another, who has reached years OF
maturity, the course of reading he should
pursue. His mind and taste are formed,
and he must suit himself in his selection OF
reading matters. 1t depends upon the bent
of his mind and taste what he will choose.
A book chosen by another, though excel
lent in every way, might fail to interest him,
and therefore its instructions would take no
hold on his memory.
But in children good habits of reading
can be cultivated. They can be taught how
to read and what to read. Their young,
uniformed, impossible minds can be led up
TO a high plane in which they will find en-
ioyment as we'll as gain useful knowledge.
Allow a child's mind to become vitiated by
reading anything and everything, and his
education will never amount to much. AT
ter reading tales of blood and thunder
t pirate life, and forest adventures, he will
find history and biography tame, and sole
f reading will become a task and not Il pleas
/ ure. .
f Novel reading, if INDUCED in systematic
y ally. will almost inevitably result in the &C
! quirement of many false ideas of lite. Low
J. is unduly magnified as the one sole aim am
q end of life in books of this class. The horne
" duties and aims of common life appea
dull and distasteful to the novel-reader, VIII
is always expecting and longing for som
v wonderful and romantic event to transpir
d which will cast a rose-colered glow over a
things. Their highest aspirations are q
rpctGu coward SOlllCLllIiS fhS"S "A" -
,r formed in the future, and there is a DANCE
GUS inclination toward an overbalance 0
the side of feeling and sentiment. Bt
IS there are novels and novels. And the &c
e, ebrated and great novels are by far the mo
n entertaining to the ordinary reader, who's
j. early education has not been neglected, al
IS whose mind has not been warped by rea
n ing only of sentiment and unhappy romano
r. tt is not advisable to force children to res
only that which is solid and instructive, b
H. they should not be permitted to choose the
lighter reading without counsel and adv
in from those who are competent to give
ID Books that are worth reading are general
he worth reading again. Those which ovt
.st flow with profound and beautiful though
Is, and are replete with soil dinstruction, shou
OF be in every mans library, If he can alto
he to buy them, and accessible to his childre'
on A word of warning should be given
,es those who. are inclined toward, oyer-stuc