Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1882-10-14
NIX. CRLZAN'S DISCOURSE on
READING"
TerL Tm eB


Speaking especially to young people and
working people, last Sunday evening, Mr..
Cruzan said in substance
You can and ..you ought to be, something
more than mere breadwinners and bread.
eaters. Every man has within him capacities
for growth which will reward intense, unrelax.
ing toll. You are not machine, but being
Of free spiritual powers The ground of a
mans culture lies in his nature, and not in his
calling. Your trade or daily work, is not the
great end of your being. Don't let your
daily work bound the range of your soul. vision
You are man, not a mere worker. You
Of tools, or a keeper Of accounts. So urge
you especially to attendance to reading"
Let me give you few hints upon reading
l. Find some time every day for useful read
ing something besides the omnipo,ent news
paper. You have no time p Save the min
utes-the odd ones thrown away. Tomorrow,
on the way to your work, buy one of Putnam's
Happy Volumes" or an Emerson j" Little
IL
your pocket and give it your odd, idle min.
utes You will need a second one before the
week is out. ?. Own the books you read.
"You have no money! Your tobacco money
will keep you in books. 3. Read with atten
ton. Slovenly, desultory, effeminate, pas
sive seading is kind of intellectual dram
drinking. 4. Digest what you read. Real,
great books should be read and re-read til
their ideas pass like the iron atoms of tn,
blood into the mental constitution. 6. Reat
with independent judgment and critical spirit
There is no more reason why you should s!av
ishly agree with a book than with man will
whom you converse.
What shall we read2 Shall we reat
novels ?" 1t is a vexed question which is tn,
greater fool, the man who condemns all novel
and will read none of them, or, the man VIII,
reads all novels without selection. There ar
good, pure, eevating novels. But fiction i
only the dessert of the intellectual feast Don
make it the whole, or even large part, @
your mental bill of fare. You might as wei
expect to be strong physically and eat nothing
but dessert, as to be strong mentally and rea
nothing but novels.
No two persons need exactly the sam
course of reading, hence one cannot particu
larize what to read before IN audience. TIL
best that can be done is to give few helpfr
hints I. Either alone or, with some friend
or with manual, like President Porter
Books and Reading" mark out course
reading for yourself. 2. The plan should /
a broad one, covering years. 3. Don't be
haste to finish it. Franklins rule, "Whatev,
is worth doing a. all is worth doing well,
applies to nothing more patty than to ment
culture. 4. Don't slavishly follow youS cours
Whenever you are interested in valuab
book outside your course read it, 5. 1t
:, impossible to read all the good books. Sele
: ton is inevitable. 6. Don't be in haste
= read the new books. 7. Choose books
acknowledged reputation. AS the dictional
makers say, Sect the best" s. Read, ar
: master, all the books that relate, directly
indirectly, to your work, trade or profession
Then, 9, Begin where you are most ignora
or where your ignorance most annoys yo
i TO- Begin where you are most interested. 1
IS But begin. IL. Keep at it.
d Whether your library is large or SINAI
Z, whether you read many books or few, put oil
1t book above all others-the bible, New
l. cease studying that. The man who owns on
N a bible, reads it, and loves it, has libra
If that reaches from earth to heaven.