The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-01
Our Special OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
A HOME LIBRARY.
*** By FREDERICK SAUNDERS, *.*


it is we'll to refer to the fact, however,
to stimulate our gratitude and make
us appreciative Of our high privilege.
Ruskin well remarks, "Bread of
flour is good, but there is bread,
sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in
good book, and the family must be
poor, indeed, which cannot for such
multipliable barley -loaves pay their
bakers BILL" The words of Richard
Golden are in point. He says, "The
purest pleasures l have ever known
are those accessible to all; it is the
calm intercourse with intelligent
minds and in communion with the
departed great, through books, by our
own firesides"
Hillard adds his testimony in these
words: "Books are the friends of the
friendless, and private library is the
home of the homeless" It is the
province of good books to act upon
us with the charm of the magician,
lifting us unawares out of our
meaner cares" and laying our sor-
rows asleep. 1t has been we'll said
that "there is no such antidote for
loneliness, no such tonic for de-
preston, as we'll stored, we'll
trained mind" Learning makes
a man fit company for himself" said
Young; and it also adds precious
seeing to the eye, as well as solace
to his heart.
GA natural turn for reading and
intellectual pursuits" said Thomas
Hood, probably preserved me from
the moral shipwreck SO apt to befall
those who are deprived in early life
Of their parental pilotage. My books
kept me from the ring, the dog pit,
the tavern, the saloon. The closet
associate of Pope and Addison, the
mind accustomed othe noble, though
silent, discourse of Shakespeare and
Milton, will hardly seek or put up
with low company and slaves"
John Bright has left this estimate:
Il would prefer to have one comfor-
table room, we'll stocked with books,
to all you can give me, in the way of
decoration, which the highest art can
supply. There is no greater blessing
that can be given to family than a
love of books" "a little library,
growing larger every year, is an hon
orable part of mans history; IL
brary is one of the modern necessities
of life."
Henry Ward Beecher thus pleads
for the home library, and further
urges his plea in these words: "Books
are the windows through which the
soul looks out. A home without
books is like room without windows.
No man has a right to bring up his
children without surrounding them
with books, if he has the means to
buy them. 1t is wrong to his family.
He cheats them! Children learn to
read by being in the presence of
books. The love of knowledge comes
with reading and grows upon it. And
the love of knowledge, in a young
mind, is almost warrant against the
inferior excitement of passions and
vices"
Crabbe thus sums up the subject:
This books can do, nor this alone tie, give
New views to life and teach US how TO live.
They soothe the grieved, lhe stubborn they
chastise.
Fools they admonish and confirm the wise"
Book-love has been POLITICALLY
styled the good angel that keeps
watch and ward by the hearth and
hallows it, shielding the inmates
from the false allurements and perils
that lurk outside. Some loves may
blind us, and bewitch us, but book
love enlightens and inspires it's vota-
ries. 1t is a love which requires
neither justification, apology nor de-
fense; it is SO good athing in itself,
possession to be thankful for, to re-
joice over, to be proud of, and to sing
aloud its praises. Said De Tocque-
vile, who in his day wrote the ablest
book on the Republic, "If l were
asked to what the singular prosperity
and growing strength of the Ameri-
can people ought mainly to be at
tributed, l should reply-to the SUI
periority of their women" That
means their superior culture.
Any person can make his own plan
of home library, according to his
tastes and pursuits; but for one who
has not prescibed for himself any
particular branch of study, there are
several "Guide-books" for the pur-
pose accessible. Taste in the selec
tion of books is quite as important as
in the choice of friends-in both
cases they exert direct and yet un-
conscious influence upon us. If we