St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-03-25
CANDY DIET FOR THE BRAIN.
"Daisy, have you finished Margery

Dalsy, HIVE you hhishoo MAI S0i y
Daw ?"
eyes, but / couldn't see anything to
it. Now the Queen of Sheba was per
fectly splendid, l thought"
"Have any of you girls read the
Lady of the ArOostOok ?"
eyes, l have. Have you read
Guenn ?"
81 am going to just as soon us I fin
ish Jack and Gill"
This, as nearly as | can reproduce it,
was the conversation carried on by a
group of girls scarcely in their teens.
If had frankly expressed my feelings,
imagine the girls would have said in
astOnishment, "Why are you shocked ?
Ar'nt these all proper books ?"
Certainly, most proper and delight
full in their place, but-well, let me il
lustrate. Suppose that when you
come to the breakfast table to morrow
morning, expecting such nOurishing
food as oatmeal, beef-steak, milk toast
and Omelette, you find in the center of
the table a great dish of candy, and
nothing else fancy you would look
at father and mother to learn whether
ROBUSTNESS, or malice, or insanity, had
ordered such a repast. But suppose
that for dinner there was no change in
the bill of fare, nor for supper and the
following day it should be the same,
and the day after, and so on. Worse
still, suppose that candy had been your
only diet since childhood. What would
be the result? You can have bit of
suggestion in the remembrance of some
child, whose pale face, hollow cheeks,
black and crumbling teeth, and irrita-
bility, tell at once of digestion ruined
and health undermined by too much
candy.
Now that is what you are doing to
your mind. Instead of feeding it on
the nourishing diet of history, travel
and essay, thus producing the real
bone and sinew of thought and under
standing, you are running its digestion,
impairing it's fiber and keeping it in
weak tabby state by constant diet of
fiction. You are also injuring your
body. Only few days after this con-
versation read the warning of ply
stefan, who declared that the undue
excitement of the emotions caused by
reading novels was exceedingly inju-
riOus to the bodily development and
health of the young.
| take it for granted that you are all
too sensible to need any more words to
open your eyes. In this nineteenth
century, calling for strOng-minded
men and women, with so many young
people making a mark as writer's, in
ventors, scientific discoveries and
with so many thousands
studying at home every spare minute,
know that you are not disposed to go
life with flabby brains and
baby ideas.
say.
One easy rule is, to be sure to read a
solid book for every work of fiction.
For every dessert of romance have a
first course of history, BIZ
Ography, science or travel.
A better course | can make more |
plain to you by illustration. Let us
take for the guide Dickens's Child's
History of England. Not far from the
beginning you come upon the names of
King Arthur and the knights of his
Round Table. Now lay aside the his
tory, draw from the library the Boys
by Sidney Lanier. The
Age of Chivalry, by Bulfinch, and the
Idylls of the King, by Tennyson, all
full of legends about King Arthur
which you will find as entertaining as
my story book. After reading these,
axe up your history again and read
Until you come To the account of a
Norman becoming king of England,
md the changes introduced by him
md his descendants into the speech,
avs and manners of the English peo-
lie. Then turn to Walter SCOTS
vanhoe, where you will find a won
lrously vivid picture of those times.
'cott's Talisman will tell you more
bout Richard the Lionhearted, the he ;
o of IvanhOe, and the crusades of his I
line. Soon yOu will want to read
ONE description of England and its I
such as may be found in ]