Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-04-12

| thought given even TO an ordinary tale,
and the years of hard labor bestowed
upon our scientific books of nature, art,
| philosophy and science Two, five, ten,
twenty years oftentimes to single
book. And this work of years will last,
while the frothy foam Of periodical
literature soon melts away
The singleness of aim in book, be it
for amusement, reflection or instruction,
adds to its influence. Concentration of
force is ever powcr-diifusencss is
weakness.
The permanency OF book makes an
| author afraid to make statements that
cannot be verified, therefore book facts
rs against newspaper facts are the more
reliable. There is seriousness about u
statement in q book, because it is final.
In an article in newspaper it is diff
ierent; the moral obligation is weaker
| because the writer knows he can retract
the statement next week If he sees fit,
and no man will call him liar.
In regard to our public libraries, let
me quote from the words of S. G. w.
benjamin, an authority on such matters:
III is doubtful whether the pulpit or the
| press, now surpass or even equal the in
| fluence of the public library in our
Northern and Western States.-the tre-
mendous power that is quietly but
surely welded by the 5000 libraries that
are helping to form the minds and guide
the energies of our people"
Books arc immortal, they last for
ages, and are handed down to coming
| generations, therefore their influence IS
| greater. Witness the Pentateuch of
Moses, about 1852, Il. c., and the Had
of Homer, about 015, y. C.--not to
mention hosts of others that give in
formation regarding centuries long gone.
The variety in books fits every need
OF human life that is possible. Why,
we have our cook books several hun
| bred years old, and who of us is not
under obligation to Marion Harland !?
| Books of history enable US TO see the
past and compare it with the present,
and so we are better fitted to under
this nothing? 1t is everything, when we
tinuous chain.
Some books are so jolly! They laugh
with us and the world seems gay with
fun and frolic. We owe many debt of
blue sky and sunshine to Dickens, and
the breeze of Mark Twain's humor has
blown into shreds many dark hour
| Books of travel-what do they not do
for us We have sailed up the Hudson
and seen our glorious Catskills, we have
listened to the roar of Niagara and gazed
at the sublime canons Of Colorado. Our
eyes have been gladdened by the beauty
OF California's Golden Gate, and the
| graceful droop of hanging vines and
moses OF our picturesque Florida. We
have been to Paris and London, Berlin
and Rome; We have sailed down the
Rhine in summer, and glided under the
starlit skies of Venice by night; we have
seen the mosques of Moscow, and shiv-
cred in the lead mines of Siberia. We
have eXulted over the fiords of Norway
and the bay of Naples, and we have
meditated at the foot of the Pyramids on
the mystery of the eternal sphynx. We
have been sledgng in Lapland, and we
nave roamed through the iungles of
India-all over the wcrld have we gone,
although perhaps our bodies have never
been out of our native town. What
magic is this that can spirit us away to
chimes unknown? tits the olden magic
of books that lets us enter into the
palace of Cesar and into the homes of
the gods.
Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare,
George Eliot, Dickens, Thackeray, Mrs.
Burnett, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo,
Goethe, Tennyson, Longfellow, Emer-
son, Darwin-hosts of others open up to
our minds treasures so fine and lasting,
that we feel the arrogance of wealth in
the mere mentioning of their names.
These are not the transitory gems of
newspaper fame, these are the Jewels of
the crown of human genius, that will
keep their lustre and their fire forever
and day.
The opinions of our feilow-men are
worth something, especially if they be
the intellectual giants of our race.
Listen to few Of them.
Carlyle says: "All that mankind has
done, thought, gained, or been, is lying
as in magic preservation in the pages OF
books"
Channing--"Itisc chiefly through books
that we enjoy Intercourse with superior
minds, and these invaluable means of
communication are in the reach of all. !"
Dawson-"Remember, we know we'll
only the great nations whose books we
| possess"
Emerson-"We prize books and they
prize them most who are themselves
WISE"
Goldsmith said; "In proportion as
society refines, new books must ever
become more necessary"
ulwer.Lytton-"H Hank, the world, so
loud, and they, the movers of the world;
so still There is no past, as long US
books shall live"
NIilton-"A good book is the precious
| lifc-blood of u master-spirit."
| Noltaire-"You despise books, you,
whose whole lives are absorbed in the
vanities of ambition, but remember that
all the known world, excepting only
savage nations, is governed by books
Henry Ward Beecher said: 81 never
read but the headlines of newspaper;
it is waste of time. Give me book"
The direct influence Of books ON the
individual is non-caiculable. Has a
newspaper article ever influenced a
life? There are stories by the dozens of
the turning points in great mems lives,
dating from the day on which they read
certain book.
The influence of books in making
universal reform is a matter of COM
monplsce history. The celebrated LAW
of Justinian" welded enormous power
in ancient days. 1.-THE Code of
Napoleon" the civil code of France,
prepared in 1903 with great labor from
400 other existing systems, accomplished
reforms in government that have since
/ become world famous, many of them