River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-12-19
The Importance Of Reading.

Life was not gwen for reading. There
are those who seem to think that it was.
In almost any public reading room you
may see them; sometimes they come in
aimlessly, secure some paper or magazine
and the easiest chair they can find, and
stretching out lazily, read hour after hour
lounging out finally to go to their homes
or their favorite posts ON the street cor
ner; then there are those with a nervous,
jaded look, who enter quietly and select
some large volume of history or philoso-
ply, and reading earnestly and intently,
are soon buried to all that is about them
as completely as the bees extracting
honey from the flowers; but their read
ing leads to no action. They read of the
certain final success of Franklin's CON-
mon sense and industry; of the grand
but natural result OF Bunyan's penitence
and faith of the patient perseverance of
Newton and of kepler; the grandeur of
the character wrought out by Washing
ton or by Lincoln; of how no man has
nightly stirred people who has not
himself stirred mightily;-they read
and that is all. knowledge is accumulated
in huge, unshapely heap beneath
which they are borne down and carried
about as III a nightmare. You have
seen such, have you not; who have much
knowledge but little wisdom; who, over
powered by a stupendous, but ill-assorted,
array of facts, have lost their individual
lty and character, for the development
of which, some author has said, "this old
world turns over once in twenty-four
hours and swings about the sun in year
ly revolution?" Better than all such is
one honest, stalwart man, who, by stir
ring the ground with spade or hoe, adds
to the earth's riches by inducing Nature
to yield her increase. And this perhaps
is what Bacon meant when he wrote,
"To spend too much time in studies is
sloth."
Yet if what we call an education is de-
sirable, if the development of the intel
ect is worth striving for and knowledge
worth obtaining, if a thoughtful, reason
ing man is more pleasing in Gods sight
than an ignorant. unreasonable one,
then reading is important-all-important.
For does not man owe his steadily in
creasing development to the opportunity
he has of receiving the instruction of his
forefathers' knowledge and experience;
and is this not accomplished in great
measure, through his written language?
No other human invention has SO further
ed the development of man and hasten
ed the completion of this earth's mission,
as has the printing press. Let men in all
nations stop reading-what mighty stir
and throb of thought would cease! Civil
ization's flood tide would change to ebb,
and the people would go down again in
to their old ignorance of Gods words and
works and ways. How many would
drudge in dreary hopelessness whose
lives are now frightened by their read
ing; how many, who, by it, might be
reused to noble action, would dream
their life away in idleness. If we were
told that we must stop reading. we
could never read another verse of Scrip
ture, or poem of Tennyson or Longfellow,
or page of Dickens, Irving, Scott, or 9TH
ers of our favorite authors, what bright
and pleasing feature would be taken from
life's outlook; and yet how many there
are who do not improve the chance they
have of securing this profit and pleasure.
To guide us in the choice of books,
ha- rosI 4
we will do well to notice. He says,
first, Never read any book that is not a
year old; second, Never read any but
famed books. The object of these rules
is plainly to guard against reading the
poorer class of books. In general, there
can not be much question as to their val
ne, though if another uncle Toms Cab
in" were written we would scarcely like
to wait a year before reading it. But his
third rule might not be so readily agreed
TO. 1t is, Never read any but what you
like; "for," he adds, 'in Shakespeare's
phrase:
NO profit goes where there is no pleasure taken;
In brief, sir, study what you most affect
Some, no doubt, and especially at first
sight, would object t. it as encouraging
light reading; but the rule was intended
believe, for grown peori-
ed to ono @Fe, @Ao - aPplI-
- - = self by ones self, 1 think viii
work well. Reading a book when we
take little interest in it, even if the hook
be excellent, is time but poorly used; and
il we can be interested in nothing but
light and hashy reading we must remem-
Der for ourselves that we are intellectual