Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

bey, ignorant, bored, thoughtless, looking
about with blank eyes; inspiration, beauty,
things interesting and things helpful, close
beside them, all unheeded. A guide in the
Mammoth Cave told me that he once took
blind man through those black corridors.
Very likely he saw as much as some other
visitors. Every company of beholders has
some blind men in it.
USE YOUR EYES.
1t is the inevitable duty OF everybody Hho
has eyes to see 1t makes difference both
III this world and the next whether you use
your eyes or not; whether you improve
your mind or not; whether you read silly
books or good books 1t is duty to read.
You ought to read, because God, who has
given you eyes and a mind, wants you to
read.
1t is strange that there should be people
who do not care to read. For think what
read ny IS. 1t is an entrance into the best
society In the world. Take q book into
your nand and you hold a wand more potent
than was ever welded by magician. where
BY you may summon at your will the wisest
spirits of all time to teach you, the most
charming romancers to tell you stories, the
most graceful poets to recite their verses.
Heroes will narrate their feats OF bravery;
travellers will describe their sights and ad-
u.
wisdom, the fancy, the philosophy, the
achievement, the hope. of all lands and
times lie'open to you. You may go any
where, buying no tickets, bothered with no
baggage; you need not be imprisoned in
sleeping-ears. You may out-wander the
Wandering Jew. You NAV live in any
land or in any century, as you please.
YOU MAY MEET ANYBODY.
the King, the statesman, the philosopher,
the saint, the elect Of the world without
embarrassment and without reserve. A look
is like the magic cloak in the Arabian
story; you have but to spread it open, and
wish to be somewhere, and there immedi-
ately you are.
And books will not only transport you
into new scenes, and bring you into the
best company, but they will rid you some
times of that most uncomfortable COM
panion, yourself. In the old days they ex-
orcised evil spirits by the ban of bell, book
and candle. What the bell was for, / know
not We can dispense with that Give us
a book ard a candle, and.away we'll scatter
the haunting spirits which weary and de-
press US.
Life, the men of science tell us, is har-
mony with environment. He makes the
most of life who has the widest environ
ment, and is in most thorough accord with
it. But books widen out the horizon Of
life almost to infinity. You cannot make
the most of life, you cannot get either the
most profit or the most pleasure out Of il
without books. He that hath eyes to read,
let him read.
But here comes in the Lords caution:
Take heed what ye read. What shall we
read?
There is good rule for eating, into which
all the prescriptions of physicians are con-
densed: eat what agrees with you. What
ever makes you strong, keeps your head
clear and your pulse steady, keeps you
well-choose that
GOOD FOOD FOR THE MIND.
This is also one rule for reading. Read
what agrees with you. Read whatever
makes your intellectual and spiritual ma
ture strong and we'll. Read whatever makes
you grow.
The analogy between food for the mind
and food for the body is suggestive one.
Some books are nothing but intellectual
sweetmeats. They are very pleasant, and
they have right and useful place, if they
are set down on the mental menu just where
they belong in the last course. They are
harm ul only when they take the place Of
more nutritious fare. Some peoples read
ing is like a series OF breakfasts, dinners
and suppers, all of ice cream and French
candy.
Some books are like the provisions which
Lieutenant Harlow and his associates in the
Thetis found in the larders of the Greely
party, in the ice pantry of camp starvation
narrow strips OF bootleg, waiting to be
tewed with moss into something which
hey tried to imagine to be soup. There is just
about as much good in some books, as there
was strength in that starvation SOUP.
1t is good plan Tor us to review OCCASION
llly the books which we are reading, and
place them according to food analogies, and
Zee just what our mental bill of fare amounts
lo-how much good meat and wholesome
bread, and how much French candy and
starvation soup. GEORGE HODGES.